<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Summertime by RulerOfTheValaxy</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30143232">Summertime</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/RulerOfTheValaxy/pseuds/RulerOfTheValaxy'>RulerOfTheValaxy</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Summertime (and related tales) [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>RWBY</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Action, Agender Ozpin (RWBY), Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blake and Yang are Tai and Kali's parents, Canon-Typical Violence, Childhood Trauma, Disabled Character, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Sex, Eventual Smut, Everyone Is Gay, Everyone is LGBTQIA, F/F, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Humour, Hurt/Comfort, Infrequent scenes of stronger body horror (from Summer's semblance), Lesbian Character, Lesbian Parents, Lesbian Sex, Long, Mild Body Horror (Summer's semblance), Minor Ableism from unnamed side characters, Multi, Neurodivergent Summer Rose, Non-binary character, Polyamory, Romance, Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long Are Not Related, Ruby and Weiss are Summer's parents, Slow Burn, Trans Character, Trans Ruby Rose (RWBY), Trans Summer Rose (RWBY), Trans male Taiyang Xiao Long, Trauma, long fic, non-binary Ruby Rose, polyamorous lesbians</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-05-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 12:00:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>37,826</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30143232</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/RulerOfTheValaxy/pseuds/RulerOfTheValaxy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>“We’re here to become Hunters, not get detention,” Glynda said firmly.</em>
</p><p><em>“We can do both!” Summer corrected with glee.</em><br/> </p><p>Summer follows in Weiss and Ruby's footsteps and begins her first year at Beacon Academy, finds her team, falls in love, masters her semblance, and becomes a Hunter! Unfortunately, it’s not all sunshine and roses…</p><p>This is a canon-like AU where the ages are shuffled. Summer’s generation are the students, whereas the RWBY generation are the parents who take a background role. There’s some exceptions to the age shuffle, and some characters have different familial relationships to canon. Slow-burn mixture of fluff, action, angst/hurt with comfort, with polyamorous ships as the destination and LOTS of queer characters. Basically every character is queer in this fic. Eventual smut, first scene will be around Chapter 13. Explicit rating to be on the safe side. This fic is 18+.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Background Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long - Relationship, Background Crime Dads, Background Junior/Roman Torchwick, Background Qrow Branwen/Taiyang Xiao Long, Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long, Glynda Goodwitch/Kali Belladonna/Raven Branwen/Summer Rose, Glynda Goodwitch/Summer Rose, Kali Belladonna/Glynda Goodwitch, Kali Belladonna/Raven Branwen, Kali Belladonna/Summer Rose, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Qrow Branwen/Taiyang Xiao Long, Raven Branwen/Glynda Goodwitch, Raven Branwen/Summer Rose, Ruby Rose/Weiss Schnee, background Ruby Rose/Weiss Schnee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Summertime (and related tales) [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2312027</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>49</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. When the Living is Easy...</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Chapter has been updated to reflect Lindsay's pronouns, since Lindsay's voice is so strongly connected to Ruby for me that I imagined the character in this story as having their voice. If Lindsay clarifies specifics about gendered language, I'll update again to reflect that.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>People always told her how much she took after Ruby Rose; theatrical dress-sense like them, enthusiastic like them, energetic like them, and mind-numbingly annoying like them. But Ruby was like that from the moment they woke up, whereas Summer was a slow starter.</p><p>For Summer, mornings sucked.</p><p>So when Ruby burst into her room in a flurry of petals and blurred to her bedside squealing, “it’s today, it’s today, it’s today, wake up, wake up,”, Summer just groaned and rolled over, folding her pillow to cover her ears. She drew her knees up to her tummy and huffed.</p><p>“Too early,” Summer whined as she screwed her eyes shut and felt her hands sink into the pillow curled around her head. “Lemme sleep.”</p><p>Ruby started to drum gently on Summer’s shoulder with their fingertips.</p><p>“Pancakes,” Ruby intoned slowly, then again, “<em>Paaaaaaancaaaaaaaaakes…”</em></p><p>Summer cracked open one eye. She turned back to look at her parent. “Now?” she asked.</p><p>Ruby nodded, practically vibrating with excitement.</p><p>Summer thought for a moment. “Five more minutes?” she asked.</p><p>Ruby pouted. “OK, but I’m starting now!” they exclaimed, and swept away in a blur of petals, making Summer’s bedside lamp wobble.</p><p>Summer slumped back down. Even though she wasn’t full awake, she could already feel her own excitement starting to kick in.</p><p>It was today. <em>The</em> day.</p><p>Ten minutes later she stumbled down the stairs and to the kitchen, fumbling with the belt of her dressing gown. The cord kept slipping through her fingers, and she stepped right out of her slippers on the last step.</p><p>She turned the handle of the kitchen door but only got it halfway open before she walked through it, then pulled back one of the kitchen chairs by the table, collapsed into it, and sighed.</p><p>“There’s coffee on the counter, darling,” Weiss said, deftly flipping a pancake. So, Summer pushed herself up from the floor and stood up in the chair. She shuffled back through the wooden chair to the counter.</p><p>“Uh,” Ruby said suddenly, “maybe we should pour it for you.”</p><p>In a flash of red, Ruby was at the counter, pouring her a mug. Summer mumbled her thanks, yawning.</p><p>Zwei came up to say hello, and Summer felt herself start to wake up a little more. “Hey there Mister Waggy-pants,” Summer crooned, petting his fluffy little head while Ruby spooned copious amounts of sugar into Summer’s mug, much to Weiss’s resigned disapproval.</p><p>Ruby didn’t hand the mug to Summer at first, instead holding it on her behalf for Summer’s first few sips. The piping hot coffee woke her right up though, and after a few mouthfuls she could hold the mug herself. Ruby passed Summer her pill box, and Summer took her morning dose and washed it down quickly with another sip of coffee. Carefully, she carried her mug back to her place at the table and set it down, sitting in her chair without moving through it this time.</p><p>These days she loved her semblance, but it did <em>not</em> pair well with sleepiness.</p><p>In the past couple of years, she’d managed to stop anything major from happening without her intentions. She hadn’t fallen through the floor of her bedroom in her sleep since she was twelve, a fact she was still proud of, and with every few months that passed, she grew better at getting started in the mornings.</p><p>She was definitely still improving, Summer thought as she watched her fork slide through her hands like an illusion, spilling white rose petals as it fell back onto the table. She focussed, flexed her fingers, and picked the fork back up. Definitely still improving…</p><p>Weiss set down a plate with a pancake in front of Summer, and tousled her hair before returning to the hob.</p><p>“That was my pancake,” Ruby complained.</p><p>“You’ve already had three,” Weiss replied.</p><p>Ruby wrapped their arms around Weiss from behind, nuzzling into the side of her neck. “Married privilege,” Ruby whined.</p><p>“Ruby Rose, you’ll get more pancakes,” Weiss laughed, “I promise.”</p><p>Summer managed to eat five without moving through or dropping anything, and by the end of breakfast the coffee was kicking in and she was finally hitting her stride. She hopped up and clapped her hands.</p><p>“Right!” she exclaimed, and skipped over to the hob to hug Weiss. “I’ll take over,” she said, “sit down and I’ll make you some.”</p><p>Weiss smiled and passed her the spatula before moving to sit at the table with Ruby.</p><p>“Big day today,” Weiss said warmly. “Big day…”</p><p>Summer glanced back to see Weiss wiping her eyes.</p><p>“Mum,” Summer said. Now that she was awake, the full meaning of ‘today’ started to sink in. She felt a lump form in her throat. “I’ll come visit, I promise.”</p><p>Weiss smiled. “I know, Summer,” she said, “that’s not it.” Ruby took Weiss’s hand, gently rubbing over the back of it with their thumb.</p><p>“I’m happy,” Weiss said, her voice warm and steady as Ruby passed her a tissue. “And I’m proud,” she continued, “and I’m so glad you chose Beacon.”</p><p>Summer scooped out the pancake before it started to burn and rushed over to her parents with it on a plate. She gently set it down in front of Weiss and hugged Weiss again while she sat. Weiss leaned her head against Summer’s tummy, and Summer tousled her hair.</p><p>“I love you,” Summer said.</p><p>“Love you too,” Weiss replied.</p><p>“Love you three,” Ruby finished.</p>
<hr/><p>Most people wouldn’t think a corset was practical clothing for travel. Or a cape, for that matter.</p><p>Summer thought those people were ridiculous.</p><p>Practicality was secondary – <em>style</em> was everything.</p><p>Admittedly, she did briefly consider wearing more conventional clothes for the day she’d be arriving at Beacon for the first time, but no clothes could make <em>her</em> be conventional. If people thought she was weird, they’d think she was weird no matter what. And they’d be right, but she had Weiss Schnee and Ruby Rose for her parents, so of course she was weird. And so, it had to be her corset dress and white-and-red cape.</p><p>Weiss fussed over her packing endlessly: double-checking that Summer had enough Dust, triple-checking that she had indeed packed her oestradiol pills, and quadruple-checking her stationary supplies. Ruby and Summer let her fuss while Ruby plaited Summer’s hair.</p><p>Eventually though, they had to stop her. “Weiss,” Ruby said gently, “she’s definitely got everything.”</p><p>Weiss put her hands on her hips, nodding, clearly still lost in thought. “Time?” she asked absently.</p><p>Summer glanced at her scroll. “Still two hours until the airship takes off,” she replied, fidgeting with her hands.</p><p>Weiss nodded again. “There’s check-in to account for though,” she said, nervously biting the edge of her thumbnail.</p><p>Ruby, having finished Summer’s hair, skipped over to hug their wife.</p><p>“Still time,” Ruby reassured, “but we could leave early if you prefer?”</p><p>Weiss nodded. “Better early than late,” she said.</p><p>They set about loading up the car. If it wasn’t for the luggage, Ruby would fly her there, and they complained jokingly about how inferior cars were to their semblance, though cars were admittedly less likely to cause motion sickness. Ruby's deliberate silliness helped Weiss’s nerves to settle, and they did end up waiting a little longer, drinking tea together on the porch, looking out towards the coastline of Patch.</p><p>From the hill they lived on, the sea was visible near the edge of the horizon, and on a clear morning like this you could see further west. On the very edge of the horizon was the indistinct shape of the mainland, of Vale.</p><p>Weiss gave her plenty of last-minute advice and warnings that she had probably already given Summer a dozen times, and again reminded her to meet up with the Belladonna-Xiao Longs when she arrived at Beacon. Blake and Yang had been their old teammates, Yang having also been Ruby’s neighbour when they were kids. Summer had never met them or their children, Taiyang and Kali, but she’d heard plenty of bedtime stories about her parents’ Beacon days. Weiss and Ruby were so excited for their kids to meet, and that excitement was infectious.</p><p>“If they’re anything like their parents,” Ruby said, “You’ll have <em>so much fun</em>.”</p><p>Before long it was time to go, and she watched as her little home in Patch dwindled away into the rear window. She cried silently, not wanting to set her parents off too, resting her hand on the slim case beside her that held Rosethorn. Her weapon always comforted her; wherever she went, she’d carry that piece of home with her. And just like she said, she’d be coming back to visit.</p><p>But it was still a big change. This was bigger than the thought that she’d be eighteen in a few weeks. That number wouldn’t really change much about her, but this? This would. When she came back, she’d be a Hunter-in-training, and some day, she’d be a Hunter for real. She’d have teammates and exams and missions and definitely get into way too much trouble because, of course, she took after Ruby in that regard too.</p><p>When they reached the airport, she held them tight, they said their farewells, and she was off.</p><p>Summer Schnee left Patch, with no idea how much her life was about to change in the months to follow.</p>
<hr/><p>The journey was pretty uneventful. Students arrived throughout the day and were sent to the canteen for dinner and told to cross the courtyard to the Hall where they’d be sleeping for the first night. When Summer arrived, it was late afternoon, and the canteen was mostly empty. She ate and took her evening pill, and crossed the courtyard with her trolley.</p><p>Summer received a lot of weird stares from some of the smaller groups when she entered the Hall, probably for her outfit and her unusually large amount of luggage (she could thank Weiss for the latter), but as she looked around the room, she saw that she wasn’t alone in either of those things.</p><p>Of the thirty-or-so new students in the Hall, a few others had lots of luggage, but Summer saw someone else wearing black and red; a pair who were clearly twins.</p><p>Both wore matching hoodies and dark sweatpants, black with red patterns. Summer managed to contain her squealing at how cute that was, not least because one of them, the girl, was asleep. She lay on her side, on top of her sleeping bag rather than inside it, her waist-length black hair tied back behind her. Her twin brother was awake, leaning back against the wall of the room, his pale-red eyes visible beneath messy bangs as he focussed on a pen he twirled between his fingertips, an open notebook on the floor in front of him.</p><p>Summer didn’t go up to greet them, not least because she was intercepted by someone just as loud and over-friendly as herself, only in a gruffer way. His blond hair was short and he wore a vest to show off his biceps and a black heart tattoo on his right arm. He was sitting with a group of about a dozen people and waved as she walked in, so she waved back. There was space at the wall nearby where she could fit her luggage, so she rolled her trolley there and left it, and went to greet the group.</p><p>“Hi,” she said excitedly as the huge guy shifted to make some room in the circle for her to his right.</p><p>“No, Tai,” he replied, and gestured to a cat Faunus girl on his left who had black hair and a shy smile. “My sister, Kali,” he said.</p><p>Summer did a double-take before she beamed.</p><p>“I’m Summer Schnee!” she squealed. Kali’s cat ears flicked and she winced, a couple of the other Faunus in the circle also flinched. “Oh God,” Summer blurted, suddenly hushing her voice to a whisper, “I’m sorry everyone, sorry.”</p><p>She glanced around to see if she’d disturbed anyone else. That sleeping twin had cracked open a baleful eye to glare at her. The young woman had red eyes like her brother, but whereas his irises were soft and pale, hers were a sharper scarlet. Scary eyes. Summer quickly looked away.</p><p>Tai was totally unphased. He laughed loudly and nudged her with his shoulder. “Good to finally meet you,” he said warmly. His voice wasn’t ‘quiet’ but it wasn’t ‘loud’, so to speak; high-volume but not hard, not sudden, and definitely not as loud as Summer got when she was excited. His eyes were kind, cat-like slit pupils edged with warm amber irises.</p><p>Kali glanced towards the others in the circle. “Our parents were teammates with hers,” she said briefly, before turning her attention to Summer. “It <em>is</em> good to meet you,” she agreed.</p><p>Summer smiled back, careful to keep her voice less loud. “I didn’t expect to find you this fast,” she laughed.</p><p>Kali’s head tilted a little and she gave Summer an amused look, her lilac eyes bright. “All the first years are in the same room, of course you’d meet us right away.”</p><p>“Right,” Summer said, suddenly feeling embarrassed, “yes. That makes sense.”</p><p>She looked around the circle of students, most of whom seemed pretty friendly. A couple of them looked at her neutrally at best though, one with platinum blonde hair, violet eyes, and a simple t-shirt, the other in tight black trousers, a crisp white blouse, and small rectangular glasses.</p><p>“Names?” Summer asked brightly. She was terrible with names, she’d probably forget half of them, but it was the thought that counts! And as long as she could remember them until tomorrow, when they would be sorted into teams, that was enough for now.</p><p>After they’d gone round in a quick circle exchanging names, Tai spoke again.</p><p>“We’re playing Haven Hold ‘Em,” Tai said. “I’ll deal you in next hand?”</p><p>Summer nodded. “Sure!” she replied.</p><p>She hadn’t played many card games before. When she was little, she had problems holding the cards in her hand. Her semblance had a few clear patterns and requirements to how it worked and what she could Overlap with, but intent and discipline were important parts of regulating it. Unfortunately, she hadn’t inherited Weiss’s discipline, and her semblance had even more of a hair trigger than Ruby’s. To make matters worse, by far the most effective parts of her body at activating her semblance were her hands and fingers. Since her hands only took a second or two of contact and the slightest thought for her semblance to take effect, they were the hardest to control intentionally.</p><p>She still found handwriting difficult. Keeping her semblance off was easy now (most of the time) but years of that extra barrier had hindered her ability to learn things like that. Weiss often did embroidery, and when she was little, Summer loved to watch Weiss embroider in the evenings. Summer had only tried once before she was sixteen, and had wound up either slipping through the needle or phasing both the needle and her fingers straight through the embroidery. Writing had been even harder than that.</p><p>By the time she’d become consistent at holding cards for a few minutes without letting them quite literally slip through her fingers, she had been old enough to train, which she’d found much more fun anyway.</p><p>So it was no surprise that she came dead last in every hand they played, to plenty of light-hearted banter and teasing from the others. She didn’t play cards to win, she played for fun, and paid more attention to the people around her than the cards themselves.</p><p>One person won every round; the girl with the glasses, Glynda. She had an impeccable poker face and outbluffed anyone, but when she smiled after winning each hand the smile was warm despite how small it was. She was clearly having fun, she just kept that energy inwards.</p><p>After Glynda’s fourth victory, another student joined the game. She ended up sitting between Glynda and Robyn, the platinum blonde girl with violet eyes who had been pretty neutral towards Summer earlier. The new student was dressed smartly, her hair parted into a pink side and a brown side, and she was <em>rocking it.</em> Summer always liked seeing other people with their own styles. The girl gave a small wave. Summer excitedly waved back, and the girl smiled.</p><p>The girl pulled out her Scroll, typed something quickly and held it up, turning so the whole group could see. On the screen was large text reading, “I’m Neo. Nice to meet you.” </p><p>The rest of them shared their names, a couple of them suddenly visibly uncomfortable. Summer made a mental note of them; definitely people to keep a wary eye on, and not people whose names deserved remembering.</p><p><em>Sign?</em> Robyn signed slowly.</p><p>Neo beamed. <em>Please,</em> she signed back fluidly, <em>Hearing. I don’t speak.</em></p><p><em>Deaf,</em> Robyn signed, <em>Name,</em> and then signed something Summer didn’t recognise, which must have been her sign name.</p><p>Patch had been a pretty small community, and working together was essential when you lived in the middle of nowhere on an isolated little island with plenty of Grimm; all kids were taught basic sign language in school, and though Summer was very rusty she could still remember some simple things, though she couldn’t remember some of the letters.</p><p><em>Hearing,</em> Summer signed carefully, <em>My name is S-U-M-M-E-R.</em></p><p>Neo hesitated as Robyn started chuckling. Neo glanced over at Robyn, her own lips quirking into a wry grin.</p><p><em>S-U-M-M-E-R,</em> Robyn clarified.</p><p>OK, maybe her signing was even more rusty than she’d thought.</p><p>A couple of other people could also sign, thankfully much better than her, including Glynda, Kali and Tai. Tai dealt Neo in as her shoulders visibly relaxed, settling into a conversation with Robyn and Glynda that was much too fast for Summer to follow.</p><p>In the hands that followed, Neo won about as often as Glynda did, and they both started to get very competitive. After watching Glynda win so many times, everyone naturally rooted for Neo.</p><p>Soon after, they were joined by the twin with the soft eyes, whose introduced himself as Qrow “with a ‘Q’.” With the following hand, Glynda’s lucky streak came to an end, and the game collapsed into complete chaos from there. Scores were bizarrely low, games were somehow won with abysmal hands, but they were all enjoying themselves. While they played, Summer started to settle in a bit, chatting with Tai and Kali. Her parents had been right, they were lovely.</p><p>Summer lost her focus for a moment when Kali said something that made her laugh so hard her semblance slipped for a moment. In a burst of white rose petals, her cards tumbled straight through her hands and onto the floor. Somehow that only made her laugh harder, even though it was embarrassing and other people were visibly confused.</p><p>“You OK?” Tai asked, also starting to laugh.</p><p>“Yes,” Summer forced out while she tried to regulate her breathing, “Used my semblance by accident.”</p><p>“You make flowers?” Qrow asked as he played a truly atrocious hand. “That’s sweet.”</p><p>Summer shook her head. Ohhhhh now this, <em>this,</em> would be fun. No-one ever saw it coming. And introducing her semblance in a funny context was always much less unsettling than it being introduced in the middle of a class.</p><p>She managed to stop herself from laughing long enough to say “Nope! Wanna see a magic trick?”</p><p>And she placed her hands together as if to pray, and slowly let her hands overlap. A small shower of white petals dropped from the point of contact, as her hands moved through one another like an optical illusion.</p><p>People stared, some looked queasy, some fascinated, some both.</p><p>She continued the movement, her forearms moving straight through one another until her elbows overlapped in the same space. At the edges of where her body overlapped, rose petals fell. Her sleeves moved with her arms, not even slightly ruffled by the movement.</p><p>She paused for emphasis before she kept going, slowly moving her arms across and through her own torso, totally beyond the range of motion of human shoulders. Bone passed through bone, muscle through muscle, and both were totally unaffected as if nothing was there at all, her clothes moving with her normally as her upper arms disappeared into her chest.</p><p>Finally she stopped with her arms pointing to either side, her right forearm poking out of her left shoulder, and her left forearm poking out of her right shoulder.</p><p>And then she wiggled her fingers.</p><p>“That,” Qrow said, “is nauseating.”</p><p>“Agreed,” Glynda said immediately.</p><p>“I know!” Summer replied as she brought her arms back to normal. “I can go through objects too. I went through the cards I was holding by mistake.”</p><p>Kali switched places with her brother so she could sit next to Summer, and scooped up a little handful of white rose petals from the floor. She ran them between her fingers.</p><p>“They’re real petals,” she said, surprised.</p><p>Summer nodded. “They’ll dissolve soon.”</p><p>Kali looked at her sympathetically. “It must have been a hard semblance to learn,” she said quietly.</p><p>Summer glanced away briefly, her fingers playing with her hair. “Well, uh,” she mumbled, “I’m not one to brag…” She totally was though.</p><p>Kali glanced round the group, some of whom appeared a little apprehensive. “No-one is obligated to share their semblance,” she reassured, which seemed to settle the ones who were on edge. Then Kali reached out to briefly squeeze Summer’s left hand. “But I think yours is cool,” she said.</p><p>Summer felt her cheeks heat, and was very glad that Neo played the winning hand at that moment, drawing the focus of the group away.</p><p>“Thanks,” Summer said, and somehow her voice didn’t crack.</p><p>There was only time for a few more hands before a teacher came in the door. The students fell silent and looked towards her. She was tall, dressed in shades of blue and grey, her skin light brown, her hair black, and her eyes silver. She wasn’t wearing her mask and she wasn’t holding her scythes, but all of them recognised her by reputation.</p><p>“You’ve got a long day tomorrow,” Professor Calavera said, “and it’s getting late. The bathrooms and changing rooms are down the hall,” she gestured over her shoulder, “they are individual stalls. Be considerate of each other and get plenty of rest. Breakfast opens in the canteen across the courtyard at 7am sharp. Those of you who asked for separate rooms for tonight, come with me.”</p><p>Then Professor Calavera walked a short way from the entrance to the Hall, and the students started to get ready. Summer skipped over to her luggage and used her semblance to pluck her toothbrush, toiletries, and pyjamas from inside her cases without opening them; she knew where they were, and it was easier than unpacking stuff. Tai complained about how unfair that was while he rifled through his backpack.</p><p>The changing rooms were simple, but nice enough. Before long she was done, and after putting her things away, she set up her sleeping bag and mat that the staff had given them and snuggled inside. Gradually, students came back in and settled down too. Qrow and his sister settled a short distance to her right, Tai and Kali set up their mats a bit to her left.</p><p>She crossed her fingers, hoping that Tai or Kali would be on her team. Preferably both. Definitely not the scary twin sister, that would be the worst. Qrow seemed OK from what little they’d said to each other, but Summer could still feel the girl’s glare at her for waking her up earlier.</p><p>But teammate or not she’d still be a classmate. Summer knew she shouldn’t let this get any worse.</p><p>So when the twin sister started setting up her mat, Summer rolled over and sat up in her sleeping bag.</p><p>“Hey,” she said quietly, waving a little to get her attention, and properly looking at the girl for the first time. It was only when the twin turned to face her fully that Summer realised how tall she was. She wore simple pyjamas with a black tank top, her arms muscled and powerful in a different way to Tai’s. Tai was bulky and soft. She wasn’t. She was athletic, defined, her shoulders and arms criss-crossed with scars that extended under her clothes.</p><p>Her head seemed to be the only part of her that had escaped any kind of scarring. They were all different sizes and shapes, some clearly Grimm bite or claws marks, others were definitely from blades or bullets. Aura healed things fast, which meant that scarring was rare except for deep wounds as long as your Aura was up when you were hurt. So, had she got those before she unlocked her Aura, or after it was broken? Either way, it was a body shaped by survival.</p><p>Tai looked like he’d trained his body to fight. But she looked like she’d spent her entire life fighting.</p><p>She was totally at odds with her slender twin brother.</p><p>And dear <em>gods</em> she was intimidating.</p><p>She raised an eyebrow expectantly and Summer realised that she hadn’t said anything. Summer swallowed nervously. “Sorry I woke you,” she said, “earlier, I mean.”</p><p>“Thanks,” the scary twin replied simply, and turned to go to her bed.</p><p>“I’m Summer,” she said quickly.</p><p>The girl turned back with a small smile. “I know,” she replied, “I think they heard you all the way to Mistral.” Her tone of voice wasn’t mean about it though; it was dry but not cold, playful but not malicious. It was a joke? Scary Twin told jokes?</p><p>“I’m Raven,” she continued as she sat.</p><p>Qrow and Raven? Their parents clearly had a theme going. But not a subject Summer wanted to joke about; they’d probably been mocked about that plenty of times, and she was trying to make friends. As often as she put her foot in it (sometimes literally), she knew better than that.</p><p>She was trying to think of some way to continue the conversation when Raven slipped into her sleeping bag.</p><p>“Goodnight Summer,” Raven said.</p><p>“Goodnight Raven,” Summer replied as she lay back down.</p><p>From behind Raven, Qrow gave her a thumbs up and a smile, so she smiled back.</p><p>Did that mean Raven was OK? Maybe she wouldn’t be so bad as a teammate, if that happened?</p><p>Still terrifying though.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This fic is queer as all heck because I am. I'm trans, a woman, polyamorous, lesbian, and autistic - so, most of the characters are at least one of those too. Some characters have non-canon disabilities. If you have issues with any of the diversity in this story, then this fic isn't for you.</p><p>As of what I've written so far, Blake &amp; Yang are mentioned but not involved in the story. They will eventually be introduced, it depends mostly on whether this story goes on as long as I plan it to, and I don't know how many chapters away that is. I'm writing this on the fly and seeing where it goes, with only a loose plan. I will update tags when they enter the story.</p><p>You'll also notice that Summer, Tai, and Kali all have queer couples as their parents. Tai and Kali have particularly noticeable characteristics inherited from both of their mothers. No, I will not discuss anything about how they had their children. That's not part of this story, and as far as I'm concerned it's private for them. I ask that you don't speculate in the comments. Remnant's a world with magic and monsters and robots and superpowers; I don't think it being a world where any couple can have biological kids of their own should break suspension of disbelief.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Grimm to Ashes, Dust to dust</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Summer meets her team!</p><p>Some action, some humour/fluff.</p><p>Read the chapter notes <em>after</em> reading the chapter for some details about Summer's weapon. There are spoilers for this chapter in those notes, which is why they're at the end, and I share a little bit about writing this chapter and how much it changed the original plan I had.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <hr/><p>“The exercise is simple,” Professor Ozpin said, their cane held in the crook of one arm, their coffee cup being held by Professor Calavera to their left as they signed with their hands. Calavera lightly held Ozpin’s cup in her right hand, sipping from her own cup in her left, surveying the students with a critical eye and a slight smile.</p><p>“We will throw you into the forest separately,” Ozpin continued, “You all know how to land safely. Once you’ve landed, the first person you meet is your partner for your time at Beacon. Once you’ve met a group totalling four, you become a team. Work together to reach the clearing at the centre of the forest. Retrieve one of the chess pieces and make your way back here. We’ll be observing your progress. Any questions?”</p><p>In the corner of her eye, Summer saw Glynda raise her hand. Ozpin gestured to her, taking a quick sip of their coffee before handing the cup back.</p><p>“What’s the time record?” Glynda asked, signing at the same time for Robyn, who stood beside her.</p><p>Ozpin smiled. “Three minutes, eleven seconds,” they replied in kind. “That was a team of four students with exceptional speed semblances, which is so rare that it has never happened before or since. No-one will be setting any speed records today, I’m sure. The exercise is not a race, it’s about meeting your team.”</p><p>“Is it graded?” asked one of the people whose names Summer had forgotten.</p><p>Ozpin shook their head. “No,” they said and signed, “but we will be monitoring you and will adjust our classes if any of you struggle with specific things during the exercise.”</p><p>No-one else had any questions, so Professor Calavera passed Ozpin’s coffee back to them, taking a deep drink of her own. The teachers beckoned the students forward to the plates that would launch them into the Grimm-infested forest. Summer rubbed her hands together excitedly, before drawing Rosethorn from its clasp on her back, cradling it to her chest.</p><p>“I like the style,” Qrow said, “you’re only missing a big hat with a feather.”</p><p>“Oh I know,” Summer replied gleefully. “But when I tried one on it was just too much, you know? It also kept blowing off, but with the cape and the corset <em>and</em> the musket-lookalike as well I just looked silly.”</p><p>Qrow grinned. “We wouldn’t want that,” he snickered.</p><p>Summer rolled her eyes. “Careful,” she said, “my weapon’s reach is longer than yours.”</p><p>Qrow’s grin widened. “No, it isn’t,” he replied.</p><p>Summer gestured at Rosethorn. “Long sorta-musket with bayonet,” she said, then gestured at the bulky, heavy blade at Qrow’s lower back, “tiny baby sword that’s shorter than the musket. Even without shooting I still outrange you.”</p><p>Qrow shrugged. “Whatever you say, Prinschneess,” he chuckled.</p><p>“If we spar I’m totally going to kick your ass,” Summer grumbled.</p><p>The first half of the students had already launched off, so the rest of them lined up on the launch plates, Qrow on her right, Raven to her left. Further to her left, Tai and Kali saw her and gave her a little wave, which she returned.</p><p>“Good luck,” Raven said neutrally.</p><p>“You too,” Summer replied, “Cool outfit, by the way”. <em>Please please please not her,</em> she thought.</p><p>“Thank you,” Raven replied, “But try not to land near me. I doubt we’d make a good team.”</p><p>Summer was about to reply when the plates fired and the wind whipped her words away as she was flung into the air. She hated being deprived of a snarky comeback. The angles of the plates had sent them on different trajectories, quickly scattering the students, and she lost sight of them. Raven was just a blur of red and black now, falling further and further away.</p><p>As she reached the peak of her arc and began to fall, Summer spun the injection cylinder of Rosethorn to its Gravity Dust chamber and brought the stock to her shoulder. She drew back the bolt, manually injecting Gravity Dustpowder into the firing chamber. She aimed where she was going to land. Off to her right, a black bird swooped past, curving towards the trees, drawing her gaze up a little. She glimpsed the clearing further ahead (north, she guessed) before her fall obscured it behind the canopy. She aimed carefully downwards at a gap between the trees, not wanting to shoot some poor forest critter that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.</p><p>She only had to fire twice, twin bursts of violet streaking towards a small clearing, slowing herself enough to drop the last few metres and land comfortably.</p><p>Now, Ozpin did say that it was not a race. But she was a teensy bit competitive about things like this. So, she pulled the handle that vented the injected Dustpowder back into the injection cylinder – no point wasting Gravity Dust. Then, she switched back to the Dustless chamber, and set off at a swift jog north.</p><p>All she had to do now was focus.</p><p>She got distracted within ten minutes.</p><p>Summer usually got distracted from things she was doing, but to be fair, they were very pretty flowers indeed.</p><p>Besides, she’d done well that morning. She had woken up early and done stretches and exercises in the cold morning air of the courtyard so that she was fully awake by breakfast time. As a result, she’d had no semblance mishaps, she hadn’t dropped anything major or embarrassed herself too badly. She’d been organised, she’d chatted with Tai on the way over. All in all, she was doing great. Today was going well. Productive.</p><p>She felt that she’d earned one little five-minute flower break.</p><p>She didn’t know the name for the kind of flower, but its stems wound around a tree, climbing up for sunlight. Some of the buds were still closed, but others were beginning to open, red and pink with furry-looking stamen and paler tips to the petals. They smelled soft, sweet, and bright. She reached out with her fingertips and gently popped open one of the buds, watching as the petals unfolded and the flower took shape.</p><p>And then a twig snapped, off to her left. She whirled around because <em>how dare a Grimm disturb her Flower Time,</em> but it wasn’t a Grimm.</p><p>Tiptoeing away through the undergrowth was a familiar figure, looking back at her as they crept away. Their eyes met, and her new partner’s crimson eyes narrowed and lips thinned.</p><p>“Oh,” Summer said flatly.</p><p>“I know,” Raven replied, with a resigned nod.</p><p>“Partners,” Summer said, keeping the disappointment out of her voice.</p><p>Raven straightened and turned fully to face her. “Partners,” she responded with equal neutrality.</p><p>Well, if that was how it was going to be, Summer wasn’t going to ruin things from the start. They’d just have to become friends.</p><p>“The flowers are nice,” Summer said with only slightly-forced brightness.</p><p>Raven gave a small smile. “They are,” she said, her voice edged with a little impatience, “but we should keep moving.”</p><p>Summer gently plucked a pair of flowers from the plant, tucked one into the plait above her left temple, and reached out with the other to Raven.</p><p>Raven’s smile softened a little at that, and she accepted the flower with her hand as they started to walk north together. She didn’t tuck it into her hair, but she did carry it loosely in her right hand, her left hand resting comfortably on the hilt of the sword sheathed on her left hip.</p><p>Summer raised her arms. Raven looked at her quizzically. “Hug?” Summer asked.</p><p>“No,” Raven replied immediately.</p>
<hr/><p>They gradually picked up the pace as they went. Summer started to be surprised that they hadn’t come across any Grimm yet. After a while, and some slight pestering from Summer, Raven had ended up tucking the flower into her hair.</p><p>Raven said it was just so they could stop bickering about it, but her touch with the flower was gentle and careful when she put it into place. No carelessness, no flippancy, despite her words. And just like the evening before, her tone was dry, not angry. Raven liked the flower, Summer thought, but wasn’t going to give Summer the opportunity to gloat.</p><p>So, Summer pretended not to catch on, and passed the time by asking about Raven’s weapon (a sword with interchangeable Dust-blades) and gushing enthusiastically about her own. Ruby had helped her design and build her weapon, basing it partly on Ruby and Weiss’s own weapons. Summer always loved talking about it, but kept the details light, not wanting to get on Raven’s nerves. Summer didn’t talk about Overlap; the semblance talk could come later, when they’d found their teammates.</p><p>Raven stopped suddenly, left hand tightening on the hilt of her sword.</p><p>Summer focussed, glanced around, and clicked the safety off Rosethorn. She couldn’t see anything, but knew enough about Raven by now to feel sure that she wouldn’t mess around.</p><p>Raven gestured ahead and slightly to the right, then pulled a white and red full-face mask from a clip on her belt and put it on. Summer wondered briefly if the mask was why Raven’s face wasn’t scarred, but knew she shouldn’t ask. Raven’s right hand gripped the handle of her sheathed sword, knees bent, patient and ready.</p><p>And then, the forest held its breath for one short moment.</p><p>Summer’s eyes glided over the Ursa Minor in front as it charged out from the undergrowth and Raven blurred towards it, at the same moment that Summer heard the crash of movement behind her. She whipped her head around 180 degrees without turning her body as she projected some of her aura into Rosethorn. A second Ursa was approaching fast from the back.</p><p>It was quicker to turn with her arms alone than her whole body, so in a split second she twisted through herself, her right arm curling through her own torso and bringing Rosethorn to brace the stock against her right shoulder-blade, her left arm bending backwards at the elbow so she could support the barrel. She fired twice, the first bullet glancing off the head plates, the second lodging in them. The Ursa flinched.</p><p>Already she was stepping, pivoting around, and bringing her body back into a more normal alignment as the Ursa closed the gap. With her right hand, she flicked the injection cylinder two clicks clockwise to the Ice Dust chamber, drew back the bolt to inject Ice Dustpowder and then stepped forward to meet the Grimm.</p><p>She ducked the first swipe, deflected the second with Rosethorn’s stock, and struck. She skewered the right forepaw of the Ursa to the ground with her bayonet, and fired. The bullet drove through as the Ice Dust froze the Grimm’s hand to the wet soil of the forest floor. She yanked the bayonet back out of its hand.</p><p>The Ursa snapped at her, but she hopped back and allowed the anchor of its hand to stop its lunge, keeping her out of reach of the jaws. She darted around to the Ursa’s left, baiting it into swiping at her with its free left paw. Then, as it swung, she dropped and rolled in under the swing, towards the centre of its body.</p><p>She thrust Rosethorn up and forward, precisely driving the bayonet through the unarmoured flesh on the underside of the neck, just behind the hinge of the jaw. The Ursa jerked sharply. Her left hand flicked Rosethorn’s cylinder two clicks anti-clockwise, back to Dustless, and she twisted deeper towards the skull and fired one more time, up into its head. The bullet and Ice Dust tore through the head, and the next round chambered without Dustpowder.</p><p>She withdrew her bayonet as the Grimm began to collapse and crumble into ashes, and turned to Raven.</p><p>Raven was already done too, deftly brushing some ash from the scarlet edge of her blade before she returned it to its sheath. She gave Summer a nod, seemingly satisfied.</p><p>“Your semblance lets you move through yourself?” Raven asked, her masked head tilting as she looked over the little trails and patches of snow-white rose petals Summer had left on the ground behind her, already beginning to dissipate.</p><p>Summer shrugged. “More than just that, but yeah.”</p><p>Raven nodded. “I’ve never seen a semblance like that,” she continued as she gestured for them to keep moving north. Summer joined her as they broke into a jog.</p><p>“Still think we can’t work together?” Summer asked, but there was no venom in it. She was teasing.</p><p>Raven huffed. “I’m re-considering,” she replied.</p><p>They didn’t get much further before they heard the sound of a huge impact from up ahead, close, and it echoed amongst the trees.</p><p>They accelerated towards it, as Summer felt her pulse pick up. If that was a fight, who was it? Would they be the rest of her team? The trees were thinning, a clearing up ahead.</p><p>Then a tree – a whole <em>tree,</em> snapped off at the roots – hurtled towards them lengthways, moving so fast that it smashed down the young trees in its path, scattering splinters.</p><p>Summer reached out and grabbed Raven’s shoulder, trying to figure out whether she had time to push Raven out the way and Overlap herself into the ground to avoid getting crushed. But Raven was faster.</p><p>Raven drew her sword and swung, and Summer’s vision blurred into a cloud of red and black smoke and she tasted a bitter, acidic flavour. Suddenly her vision cleared again. She was falling and the tree rolled below her… Below her? She let go of Raven’s shoulder in her surprise, glancing back as the tree passed beneath her to see a wide, opaque disc of red smoke at ground level, a few metres behind them. The tree rolled right over it, and the disc stayed in place, neatly carving the tree in two with a sharp hissing sound.</p><p>She and Raven hit the ground, Summer still looking back at the shape in space, no idea why she’d gone from running on the ground to falling from mid-air. In her surprise, she stumbled on landing, lost her footing and began to fall over.</p><p>Raven grabbed Summer’s upper arm with her left hand and pulled and <em>dear gods</em> Raven was strong, as she lunged to her right, dragging Summer with her. Summer didn’t even have time to respond or say anything before a three-metre wide section of the tree slammed into the ground where she’d just landed. Numbly she registered the size of it, the weight of the impact as it crushed the mud out from beneath it; even with aura that could have been lethal to someone without a durability semblance.</p><p>Instinctively she looked up towards where the section of tree had fallen from, and saw a matching disc of red in the sky, parallel to the ground. Finally, her brain caught up and joined the dots.</p><p>Her jaw dropped as she turned back to Raven, who had already released her arm. “You–,” she started. But Raven interrupted her.</p><p>“No time,” Raven said quickly as she started to run on towards the clearing up ahead.</p><p>
  <em>Right, yes. Clearing. Teammates. Fight up ahead. Go.</em>
</p><p>She followed fast and broke out from the trees to spot the biggest Ursa Major she had ever seen. At least seven metres tall, and even then, it was slightly hunched. Thick, extensive, spiked armour, swollen limbs, but deceptively fast for its massive size. It was facing away from Raven and Summer, whoever it was swinging towards with its gigantic paws was on the other side of it – she couldn’t see them. Raven glanced back at her.</p><p>“Can your bullets pierce it?” Raven asked urgently.</p><p>“Maybe up through the soft palate,” she replied quickly, “but only point blank, the skull will be thick.”</p><p>“OK,” Raven said, “then we distract it and create an opening. I’ll try to get to the neck with my semblance, if I can get a good footing I can take the head off.”</p><p>They moved in, Raven dashing towards the back of its legs while Summer cycled to the Fire chamber of the injection cylinder, worked the bolt, and aimed at the back its head, hoping to draw its attention.</p><p>And then the ground tilted up like a trapdoor under the feet of the Ursa and it started to fall over backwards, towards them. Raven hesitated, hanging back. Summer paused too, holding her fire.</p><p>The ground under the Ursa tilted higher and the Ursa fully lost its footing, falling down onto its back. Raven darted backwards from beneath it to return to Summer, and its head smashed into the ground a few metres shy of them. But neither Summer nor Raven had a chance to follow-up.</p><p>A black blur came from beyond the Ursa, hammering down onto its neck with a glimmer of metal at the leading edge. It sheared through the thick neck of the Grimm like snipping the stem of a flower, like it was <em>nothing,</em> and the head rolled slightly away, already beginning to turn to ash.</p><p>The figure standing where its neck used to be left shadowy, smoky afterimages as they straightened up, making them impossible to clearly identify, but that dispersed quickly. Summer caught a glimpse of glowing red eyes before the student blinked and the red vanished. Visible below the hem of their black skort, their right leg was metal from above the knee, and as they drew their foot up from the ground where they now stood, Summer saw a half-moon blade extending from sole of the foot, pulled back up out of the ground it had slammed into. The blade retracted into the foot, and they settled back onto both feet, one in a functional black boot, the other bare metal and toeless, almost like a sabaton.</p><p>Summer was so surprised (and still reeling from her earlier teleportation, seriously, that was disorienting) that it took her a moment to recognise who the person was now that the smoke had vanished.</p><p>The hunter-in-training raised a hand in greeting as the last wisps of smoke drifted away from her, her other hand tucking a stray lock of her short black hair back behind her cat ears.</p><p>“Hey Summer,” Kali said, “Raven.”</p><p>Summer squealed. She couldn’t help herself. She dropped Rosethorn, surged forward and leapt into Kali to hug her. Kali caught her and didn’t even slightly budge from where she was standing, returning the embrace.</p><p>“That was so cool,” Summer gushed, “I’m so glad you’re on my team. Was that your semblance? That was amazing!”</p><p>Kali set her down onto her feet as Raven tossed her hair slightly. “It was impressive,” Raven admitted quietly.</p><p>“Thank you,” Kali said with a smile.</p><p>“How did you lift the ground?” Summer continued. “And Raven, how di–”</p><p>“She didn’t lift the ground,” a crisp, precise voice said. Summer peered past Kali, as a woman strode through the settling ashes of the Ursa Major. Wearing heels, Summer noted, but somehow not sinking into the ash or mud in the slightest, a flicker of violet visible at the point where the tips of her stiletto heels met the ground.</p><p>“We made a good team, Kali,” Glynda finished, as she adjusted the left cuff of her impeccable white blouse.</p><p>Kali gave an exaggerated curtsey in reply, her smile bright as she looked from Glynda, to Summer, to Raven.</p><p>
  <em>Team…</em>
</p><p>She had a team.</p><p>And they were the best-dressed teammates <em>ever!</em></p>
<hr/><p>“I’m so <em>excited,”</em> Summer whispered, “what’s our team name gonna beeeeeeee…”</p><p>Glynda gracefully checked off five letters on the fingertips of one immaculate hand. “G, S, R, B, and then K, B, X or L for Kali,” she said quietly, “Ozpin can’t have many options, surely.”</p><p>Raven shook her head. “There are no colours with those letters,” Raven murmured.</p><p>“SKGR, Screamin’ Green,” Summer said quietly.</p><p>Raven shot her a look. “That’s not a colour,” she snorted.</p><p>“Yes it is,” Summer insisted.</p><p>“Quiet,” Glynda muttered as Ozpin glanced over towards the four of them.</p><p>The students were sitting in rows of chairs as Ozpin stood on stage, reading out the member lists and names of the new teams. Behind the Professor was a large screen showing the team names and members as they read them out.</p><p>Summer did as Glynda told her.</p><p>For about five seconds after Ozpin’s eyes moved away.</p><p>“It’s a crayon colour,” she whispered. To her left, Kali nodded in agreement.</p><p>“Then it’s not a real colour,” Raven responded.</p><p>“It is real. Like, so many teams are named after objects or pigments,” Summer muttered.</p><p>“We are <em>not</em> getting named after a <em>crayon,”</em> Raven hissed.</p><p>“Both of you, <em>shut up,</em>” Glynda whispered, “you’ll get us into trouble.”</p><p>“It’s two words,” Kali interjected quietly. Glynda looked over at her, seemingly shocked that Kali was joining in. “Teams don’t get two word names,” Kali continued.</p><p>Summer frowned. “Really?” she asked.</p><p>Kali shook her head subtly. “They can have names where the word formed by the initials is the first word of multiple words that together makes the name for a colour, like ‘FRST’ for Forest Green, but they never have multiple separate words that get combined within a single team name’s initials, which ‘SKGR’ as Screamin’ Green would be.”</p><p>“OK,” Summer conceded once she’d got her head around that mess of a sentence, “fair point.”</p><p>“Also ‘Team Screamin’ Green’ sounds dreadful,” Kali giggled, stifling her laugh.</p><p>Glynda gave an incredibly tiny sigh. “And Summer,” she whispered, “you are definitely not the team leader.”</p><p>Summer bristled. “I so am,” she insisted.</p><p>Raven gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head. “No you’re not,” Raven whispered, “I’m in charge.”</p><p>Ozpin gave them a slightly more pointed glance. The four of them held their tongues as their Professor read out the next team.</p><p>“Team Turquoise,” Ozpin said, the screen behind them reading ‘TRQS’. “Taiyang Belladonna-Xiao Long, Robyn Hill, Qrow Branwen, and Neopolitan Scarletina.”</p><p>The four of them joined in with the polite applause, as they did for each team announced.</p><p>But once Ozpin looked away again, Summer couldn’t resist.</p><p>“Skobeloff,” Summer suggested.</p><p>“W-what?” Raven sputtered.</p><p>“You can’t just make words up,” Glynda whispered intensely, “and you are still not the team leader.”</p><p>“It’s a real colour, it’s a blue-green,” Kali mused, “like turquoise or teal. But where’s the ‘G’?”</p><p>“Uhhhhhh…” Summer stalled.</p><p>“S, K, B, but no G,” Kali continued.</p><p>“Making names is harder than I thought,” Summer sighed.</p><p>“That’s why Ozpin is Head,” Raven snickered.</p><p>“There’s more to their job than that,” Glynda muttered sharply.</p><p>“You could change your name,” Kali suggested to Glynda.</p><p>Glynda glared at her out of the corner of her eyes. <em>“What?”</em></p><p>“Lynda Lüdvich,” Kali hissed, her voice trembling with suppressed laughter, “Then we can be Skobeloff.”</p><p>“Absolutely not,” Glynda replied icily.</p><p>“Is it too late to change teams?” Raven asked, her own voice shaking with mirth.</p><p>“How about Flynda Foodwitch?” Summer giggled, starting to crack up. “Take one for the team so we can have a cool name.”</p><p>Raven’s head snapped round to her with a sharp glare. Summer froze and returned her eyes to Ozpin. Ozpin was looking right at her.</p><p>
  <em>Oh no.</em>
</p><p>“Finished?” Ozpin asked dryly.</p><p>Summer knew her face turned as red as the inside of her cape. Next to her Kali was shaking with silent laughter.</p><p>“Sorry,” Summer coughed.</p><p>Ozpin cleared their throat. “Team Gainsboro,” Ozpin said, as the letters ‘GSBR’ appeared behind them. “Glynda Goodwitch, Summer Schnee, Kali Belladonna-Xiao Long, Raven Branwen.”</p><p>Glynda glanced at Summer, slightly smug. Summer surreptitiously stuck out her tongue in reply. Raven’s eyes flicked across to Kali, one eyebrow raised quizzically.</p><p>“Grey,” Kali mouthed in reply.</p><p>“And GSBR?” Ozpin continued.</p><p>Glynda snapped to attention in her chair. “Yes, Professor?” she said crisply.</p><p>“My office, five-thirty this afternoon,” they said with a wry smile, “I think you’ve beaten the fastest time to get a detention in Beacon’s history. Congratulations, Miss Goodwitch, you broke a record after all.”</p><p>“Thank you, Professor,” Glynda responded tightly as she turned almost as red as Summer.</p><p>“One for the history books,” Kali murmured, and Summer completely lost it.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I did a little diagram of Summer’s weapon and how it works, see below. I wanted to incorporate design elements of both Myrtenaster and Crescent Rose, for obvious reasons. As for why I chose a musket-style, that was because Myrtenaster is rapier-like and I wanted to go with a similarly old-fashioned feel. I realised that Summer’s semblance would eliminate the disadvantages of a weapon like this at extreme close range, and give her a unique way of using it.</p><p>The Dustpowder concepts incorporated into this are originally by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/LacePendragon/pseuds/LacePendragon">LacePendragon</a> from their fic <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/21383629/chapters/50937892">In the Public Eye</a> and used with their permission. To briefly summarise the explanation in Chapter 36 of that fic, older weapons used powdered Dust in a similar way to how real-world weapons use gunpowder, whereas modern Dust weapons streamline the process to use less metal and allow a Hunter to imbue bullets with their aura to make up for the reduction in stopping power. LacePendragon wrote that pure Dustpowder weapons are largely outlawed because of how dangerous they are; Crescent Rose and Ember Celica are written as partial-Dustpowder weapons, Ironwood’s revolvers, Due Process, are fully-Dustpowder.</p><p>I read that fic for the first time when I was still planning Summertime and had just settled on Rosethorn’s design; when I read that worldbuilding, I knew it was a perfect fit for Rosethorn! Ruby would base their work designing Rosethorn upon Crescent Rose, so it’s written as a partial-Dustpowder weapon too, using Dustpowder to enhance the shot, but the firing of the bullet itself is not done by the Dustpowder; the bullets are more sustainably made, and the Dust consumption is lower at the cost of weaker stopping power. I also decided to split the injection system from the magazine because I thought it a) would be more interesting than having to switch magazines because of how it allows Summer to be more flexible with Dust types, and b) would reflect Myrtenaster.</p><p>Many thanks to Lace for their incredible stories, and for the permission to include Dustpowder. I don’t know if it will be explicitly discussed in this fic, because I’m seeing where chapters go as I write them, but I’d love to give Summer a chance to gush about her weapon’s mechanics at some point. I felt that in this chapter, it would break the flow of what the chapter needs to do, and the purpose of the test (which is to play a sneaky, meanie, mean trick on any reader that walked into this fic expecting Team STRQ, mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!)</p><p>Speaking of, I did originally plan for this to be a STRQ fic but without shipping STRQ, instead shipping GSBR. But then I realised that would mean either depriving STRQ or the ship of focus in the writing. So I decided to shuffle the teams, resulting in TRQS and GSBR. That's how I ended up deciding Neo is Velvet &amp; Coco's daughter and giving her the last name Scarletina. But with the letters for GSBR I could not find a team name that worked besides Gainsboro, so I turned the hours-long mess of trying to name them into a scene. I was planning for Summer to be leader until this chapter. So yeah, this chapter completely flipped the table on this fic in several ways and changed the entire plan. That was very fun, and I'm way more excited for how this fic is turning out than I would have been with the original concept before I started writing. And now this fic is already past 40k words after two weeks of writing, help!</p><p>Here's the Rosethorn diagram!</p><p> </p><p>  </p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Building Trust</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>When it comes to trust and communication, you need to start as you mean to go on.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Well, my chapters that I've written ahead have reached a sex scene, around chapter 13 or so. It won't be the only one, and to remove it would massively undermine the development of the characters involved and the growth of their relationship. So, that "maybe eventual smut" has now become definite eventual smut. This fic is now pre-emptively 18+ and I'm updating from Mature to Explicit. I'll tag the content of the chapters when we get to them.</p><p>This chapter (and those to follow in the coming weeks) do not require any tag updates.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <hr/><p>The dorm rooms were fully furnished, but Glynda took one look at the room, pulled out her scroll, and made a couple of orders to a retailer in Vale; an extra bookcase (as Glynda and Kali both had a lot of books), and an extra wardrobe, because there was no way that the two large wardrobes were enough for all four of them.</p><p>Being the most stylish team did have certain space requirements, after all.</p><p>They’d insisted on pitching in with the cost of the new furniture, but Glynda had refused, saying that as team leader, providing for the team’s collective needs was her responsibility. No-one wanted to argue, and the furniture was not expensive anyway, so they let it go.</p><p>They had chatted after the team naming ceremony, discussing their weapons and semblances, strengths and weaknesses. Glynda wanted to know every detail, but they talked quietly, careful not to let the other teams overhear them. Keeping details a surprise could be useful in spars and combat exams against other teams.</p><p>Raven had been very reluctant to elaborate on the limitations of her semblance, and none of them had pushed her. She’d said that she could create portals near herself and certain people and places of her choice, one entrance and one exit at a time. That was all she’d been willing to say about her Semblance. Glynda asked about the size of her portals, her control over their shape or curvature, the conditions for creating them, her range limit, and how much they drained her aura. Raven refused to answer any of those questions.</p><p>Kali had shared a lot more, that her semblance made her faster at the cost of her aura, but hadn’t said much about the afterimages she left – they couldn’t move independently or interact with her physically, but Summer got the feeling that Kali was keeping something about them close to her chest, if the slightly playful glimmer in her eye was anything to go by. When Glynda asked about the afterimages directly, Kali teased her, saying “a lady never reveals everything at once” (which had reduced Summer to a blushing mess). She’d then evaded the question by asking Glynda about her semblance.</p><p>Summer’s parents had talked about their Beacon days and she knew a little about Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long’s semblances. Kali’s shared common ground with what little she knew of both, but was definitely different to them. And later, as Summer watched Kali casually pick up bulky and heavy cases and trolleys with no visible effort as they unpacked, she realised that Kali's raw strength clearly was not restricted to when her semblance was active.</p><p>So that was one teammate who kept quiet out of privacy or caution, and one who withheld something minor she clearly thought would be more entertaining as a surprise. Needless to say, Glynda had been frustrated.</p><p>Glynda and Summer had both shared much more detail with the team. Glynda’s semblance was telekinesis, her limit reaching several tons lifted at once; that was how she had lifted the ground to push the Ursa over. She could use it for several things at a time, depending on how much effort each required, and could use it to manipulate Dust, create walls and barriers, and so on.</p><p>It was then that Summer had realised that Glynda had been using her semblance to wear stiletto heels to the forest and not get stuck in the mud. Style over practicality, something Summer could agree with! Glynda’s weapon, a riding crop (seriously, Summer <em>loved</em> that, it was somehow just a perfect fit for Glynda) was mainly for focussing and directing her semblance.</p><p>And finally, Summer had talked about Overlap, focussing on what she could move through and how long it took, leaving out her difficulty learning it; what mattered was that her team knew what she could do, and what she couldn’t. People looked at her semblance and tended to assume it made her physically invincible. That if someone swung at her she could go right through it, but she couldn’t.</p><p>She had to have initial contact to activate it, and the further from her hands and feet the point of contact was, the harder it was and the longer it took to switch on. Slipping through herself was effortless and barely dipped her aura. Moving through thick things, or objects that were themselves moving, was far more complex. She could only move as fast as her muscles allowed, and only in directions that she had muscles to pull her in, and everything required careful control over what Overlapped and what didn’t. If her focus broke or she lost the overlap, she’d be shunted back outside of whatever she was moving through, or it would be pushed out of her if it weighed less.</p><p>She didn’t really have anything to hide from them where her semblance was concerned, and didn’t want to anyway. Despite Raven’s reticence and Kali’s teasing, Glynda had seemed relatively satisfied by the time they had returned to their dorm. Summer had been hoping to be a team leader, like Ruby had, but Glynda listened carefully and seemed reasonable, so Summer was already getting over her initial disappointment.</p><p>They helped each other unpack, making quick work of it between Glynda and Summer’s semblances. Summer and Kali pestered them for bunk beds, but Raven and Glynda voted them down. With the tie, they’d left the beds as they were at first, until they were fully unpacked. Then, Kali gave a little smile and picked up her bed effortlessly, moved it over and set it down on top of the posts of Summer’s bed, turning theirs into a bunk bed.</p><p>Kali hopped up to sit on her bed, the top bunk, her lower legs dangling over the edge, soft skin and shining metal. Glynda’s eyes narrowed a little in annoyance.</p><p>“The vote was split,” Kali shrugged, “so half-bunks, half-not.”</p><p>Glynda gave a small huff but let it go. Summer flopped onto her bed below Kali’s and unleashed a contented yell of “Victory Naps!”</p><p>“Don’t get too comfortable,” Raven reminded her, “it’s five o’clock.”</p><p>Glynda gave a tired sigh. “Yes,” she agreed.</p><p>“I still think it’s a record to be proud of,” Kali teased.</p><p>Summer sat up abruptly and placed her fingertips on the underside of Kali’s bedframe. After a second she could Overlap, and so she reached up through it, turning her fingers solid on the other side to grip the top of Kali’s duvet. She pushed off her own mattress with her knees and pulled herself up through to Kali’s bed, ending Overlap as she emerged in order to bounce up through it, and sat down next to Kali. Her teammate looked a little surprised, but then shuffled closer and high-fived her.</p><p>“It was a team effort”, Summer declared, “we all played our part.”</p><p>Glynda rolled her eyes. “Some more than others,” she muttered.</p><p>“You did start the argument, Summer,” Raven added.</p><p>“It takes two to tango,” Summer said chirpily, “and four to get detention.”</p><p>“We’re going to get detention a lot, aren’t we?” Glynda sighed.</p><p>“All the best teams do,” Kali replied.</p><p>“We’re here to become Hunters, not get detention,” Glynda said firmly.</p><p>“We can do both,” Summer corrected with glee.</p><p>“Ambition is important,” Kali agreed.</p><p>Glynda and Raven shared a tired glance.</p><p>“We should get ready,” Glynda said, “let’s not be late.”</p><p>“We still have time,” Summer answered with a wave of her hand.</p><p>“Don’t make me pull rank,” Glynda said, with an edge of authority to her voice.</p><p>“Kali,” Summer whined, curling into towards her. “Glynda’s being mean to me.”</p><p>Kali looped a protective arm around Summer’s shoulders. “Don’t make me come down there,” Kali said smoothly, her eyes flashing red as she gave a quick wink to Glynda.</p><p>Glynda’s eyes narrowed, but she showed no other reaction. “You know we need to go,” Glynda replied.</p><p>Kali visibly thought it over, looking down at Summer.</p><p>“I have homemade cookies,” Summer said quickly.</p><p>Kali weighed it over a little more, before lifting Summer up by her underarms; Kali’s strength was still surprising and a little scary, and <em>wow what just happened to the temperature in the room and the speed of Summer’s heart?</em></p><p>Kali dropped her off the edge of the bunk bed before hopping down beside her.</p><p>“Joking aside,” Kali said, “I agree with you, Glynda.”</p><p>Summer pouted but went with her team. They left their weapons in their room, thinking it unlikely that detention would require them, and set off to Ozpin’s office. They waited in the lobby until twenty-five past, Summer fidgeting impatiently, and then headed up.</p>
<hr/><p>The elevator ride was awkward, Glynda’s annoyance only seeming to grow as they neared the top floor.</p><p>“I’ll do the talking, please,” Glynda said, and Summer felt a little relieved.</p><p>Summer could be serious when she wanted to be, but Glynda was already serious anyway, so Summer was happy to leave that to her.</p><p>Finally, the doors opened and they emerged. Ozpin was behind their desk, papers and folders neatly arranged in front of them. They looked up as the team entered.</p><p>“Ah,” they said as they stood up from their chair. “Good afternoon, Team GSBR.”</p><p>“Good afternoon, Professor Ozpin,” Glynda replied.</p><p>Ozpin picked up their cane and walked around the desk to approach the four. “With the new year and new students,” they said, “we have equipment, Dust, and training drones arriving. You will be helping staff to catalogue and store the crates, to lighten their workload.”</p><p>Ozpin gestured towards the elevator. “I’ll show you to the storage rooms,” they finished.</p><p>On the way back down the lift, Summer had been expecting them to go in silence, but Ozpin actually spoke.</p><p>“Were you surprised that you are not your team leader, Miss Schnee?” Ozpin asked, totally unprompted.</p><p>Summer almost swallowed her tongue and felt Glynda give her a sharp glance.</p><p>“K-kind of,” she spluttered.</p><p>Ozpin’s small smile turned a little fond as they looked towards the doors of the elevator. “As I understand it, Weiss Schnee had a similar surprise on her first day,” they chuckled. “I’m sure you will all be more than satisfied with your team too, before long.”</p><p>“I am,” Summer blurted, “Glynda’s great. I-I was just… hopeful. Before.”</p><p> Glynda looked a little surprised as Ozpin looked over at Summer. They adjusted their pince-nez and nodded. “You really do take after both of your parents,” Ozpin said, “you too, Miss Belladonna-Xiao Long.”</p><p>Kali looked a little startled, but not displeased by that.</p><p>The elevator doors opened and Ozpin led the team out. “I think the four of you will work well together,” said Ozpin.</p><p>This was not how Summer had expected a detention to go.</p><p>“Did you put us together on purpose?” Raven asked, her voice carefully neutral. Summer winced.</p><p>Ozpin shook their head. “I don’t predetermine the teams, I find that people naturally tend to fall in with others who are similar to them.”</p><p>“But you could set the angles of the launch plates,” Raven replied, “so you could put certain people closer together than random chance alone. You could pair someone with whoever you wanted to, regardless of how incompatible they are.”</p><p>Summer’s jaw tightened. Glynda was glaring across at Raven from behind Ozpin as the Professor led them across the courtyard and towards Beacon’s small storage warehouse, as if silently telling Raven to stop before she landed them in another detention.</p><p>Ozpin, meanwhile, gave a small laugh. “I could, Miss Branwen,” they replied, “but there would be no guarantee. Everyone feels uncertain about their team in the first days, all of you share that doubt; trust and teamwork take time to build. Start by communicating with one another.”</p><p>Raven fell silent at that. Summer fumed with her lips pressed tightly shut. She was going to have <em>A Conversation</em> with Raven about that.</p><p>Before long, they arrived, and Ozpin introduced them to the teacher organising the inventory, Professor Polendina. She gave them all a bright smile as she waved them over, a stack of four clipboards in one hand, a bundle of four pens in the other, her long red hair swaying in the slight breeze.</p><p>“Salutations,” she said brightly. It might have been Summer’s imagination, but her gaze seemed to pause very slightly on Summer and Kali when she greeted the group.</p><p>“Hello Penny,” Ozpin replied. “Team GSBR will be helping you today until seven o’clock. No semblances allowed.”</p><p>Glynda’s face didn’t fall, because her expression didn’t change like that. That said, her posture did stiffen a little bit; with a semblance like hers it would probably feel particularly inconvenient to move the crates by hand, one-at-a-time.</p><p>Kali raised her hand uncertainly. “You have a question?” Professor Polendina asked.</p><p>“My semblance increases my strength all the time, I can’t switch that off,” Kali said. Summer felt satisfied that she’d been correct about that, even though it was completely obvious.</p><p>“Does it have an active component as well?” Professor Polendina asked. Kali nodded. “Then do not use that part of it. You can use your normal strength, and help me move the heavier crates.”</p><p>With that, Ozpin bid them good evening, and left to return to their office, cane quietly clacking on the flagstones. Polendina passed each of them a clipboard and a pen.</p><p>“Call me Penny,” she said brightly, “Professor Polendina has more syllables and will reduce the efficiency of our communication. May I call you by your first names as well?”</p><p>When none of them refused, Penny said, “Excellent.”</p><p>And she put them to work. The cases weren’t too heavy, but they were all bulky and some were awkward to carry. They checked off the contents on the clipboard, carried each crate to the shelves by hand, and catalogued them into the correct place, quickly establishing a rhythm. The heavier crates Kali lifted took visible effort from her, but not from Penny.</p><p>Eventually, Summer had a crate that was going to an adjacent spot to Raven’s, and she took the chance. She was dreading it, but she was not going to let their team fall apart on Day One.</p><p>“Raven,” Summer said.</p><p>Raven looked over at her.</p><p>“What you said to Ozpin was out of line.”</p><p>Raven started, and had to adjust her grip on the crate.</p><p>“Ozpin’s right that everyone has doubts,” said Summer. “You know I do, Ozpin specifically asked me about it, probably to prompt us all to talk about this. This morning you said you wanted us to avoid each other so we weren’t on the same team. Honestly, I agreed with you then.”</p><p>Raven started to reply, but Summer cut her off. “Please let me finish first,” she said firmly, “there’s more I need to say, and talking is complicated so I need to finish my train of thought. It might be a little messy.” Raven obliged, but didn’t seem to like it.</p><p>Summer took a deep breath and tried to find a place to start.</p><p>“Before the test,” she said finally, “I didn’t say out loud that I didn’t want you as a teammate, because that’s a really nasty thing to say to someone. And then when you saw me with the flowers, you tried to avoid me and find someone else. Again, I can understand that, even though it was rude. If you’d left and I’d never been any the wiser, I would have felt alright with that. If that was all it was today, I’d be fine. You only get one partner and you wanted to get the right one, but you got me. I feel that it’s up to <em>me</em> to call you out for this, not Glynda, even though she’s team leader. Because we’re partners now.”</p><p>“Ozpin said people find teammates who are similar to them,” Summer continued, “but I don’t think we’re alike, as people. I do think we can work together, and I do think we can respect each other. Teasing is fun, but I don’t tease people I dislike. If I didn’t like you, I’d have nothing to say. I’ve enjoyed every conversation we’ve had today. But to accuse Professor Ozpin of rigging the teams? To imply we can’t work together? I can’t accept that.”</p><p>“I don’t care if they rigged the teams. It doesn’t matter. Yeah, it’s suspicious how balanced all the new teams are; every team has hand-to-hand specialists, every team has ranged fighters, every team has a mixture of combat semblances and utility semblances. No major gaps, no crushing weaknesses. I get why you don’t trust that it was pure chance. It hadn’t occurred to me until you said it, but I’m sure Glynda thought of it too, she’s really smart.”</p><p>The two of them reached the shelves and set the crates down. Raven didn’t look angry anymore.</p><p>”If Ozpin did plan for us to become a team this morning,” said Summer, “then I think we should trust their experience in deciding that. They’ve been doing this for years. But what you said didn’t just disrespect <em>them,</em> it was rude to us too. No-one else has said aloud that they would rather have a different team, but that’s what you implied. That we were unwanted. That Ozpin slung us together on a whim and you don’t like that. That we aren’t good enough for you.</p><p>“Especially after how you didn’t tell Glynda anything important about your semblance earlier. It’s OK to be slow to trust and I’m sure you have your reasons; she didn’t push you, and I won’t either. But as team leader, how can she make decisions in battle if she doesn’t know even basic things about what we can do? Especially when yours is a semblance that can affect the entire team.”</p><p>Summer took a slight step towards Raven, reaching up tentatively to lay her hand on the side of Raven’s shoulder. Raven accepted the contact, shifting to face her more directly.</p><p>“Kali withheld some minor things, but gave Glynda enough to work with and made it clear that it wasn’t from a lack of trust. She teased and played around, but you just stonewalled Glynda. I’m not asking you to spill your heart or secrets or whatever it is. I’m asking you to take a first step.”</p><p>“I don’t know if Glynda and Kali feel the same,” Summer said firmly, “but what you said to Ozpin is the first time I’ve felt hurt by you. You owe us an apology. And I think that whether or not you are capable of choosing to work with us is what’s going to make or break the whole team. Kali and I tease, but we’ll do what Glynda tells us to when it’s important. Does Glynda know that you will? She might feel like you don’t trust or respect her judgement, because the way you’ve treated her today says that you don’t. She trusted you with her semblance. You haven’t. It’s the first day, and we should be starting as we mean to go on.”</p><p>“I trust you, Raven,” Summer finished, “we worked well together this morning. I’m already glad you’re on my team, and I already wouldn’t swap you for a different teammate. We need you to meet us halfway. Can you do that?”</p><p>Raven finally met her eyes. “Yes,” Raven said quietly. “You’re right.”</p><p>Summer nodded. “Thank you,” she replied. Then she gave Raven’s shoulder a pat with one hand. “Now let’s see if we can catalogue more boxes than Glynda and Kali.”</p>
<hr/><p>They did, in the end. They hadn’t told Glynda or Kali that they were making it a race, but Summer still whooped and offered Raven a high-five (which was returned) when they handed their clipboards back in to Penny at seven o’clock.</p><p>It hadn’t been bad. The warehouse was pleasantly cool but not uncomfortable to work in, Penny gave them a short break in the middle, and it felt as though they were helping out with work that needed doing, rather than being punished. By the time they were done, barely half the new inventory remained. Penny stayed behind to lock-up while the four of them went to the canteen for dinner.</p><p>Raven didn’t talk much during their meal, but Summer gave her time. She’d said what she had to say, and now the ball was in her partner’s court.</p><p>When they returned to their dorm and began to get ready for the night, Raven cleared her throat, catching the attention of the others.</p><p>“What I said to Professor Ozpin was unfair to all of you,” Raven said haltingly. “I apologise. It implied that I didn’t want you as teammates. Honestly… I have doubts. But I have doubts about everyone.”</p><p>Her voice cracked a little towards the end, and Summer began to realise that she must have hit a really personal nail right on the head.</p><p>“You deserve my respect, and for me to try,” Raven finished. “I want to work with you. So… I’ll try my best.”</p><p>Kali dropped the boot she was taking off, quickly stood, and pulled Raven into a brief hug. Raven hugged back a little hesitantly.</p><p>“Thank you,” Kali said. “I’m glad you’re part of our team.”</p><p>As Kali stepped back, Glynda offered her hand to Raven, and Raven accepted it.</p><p>“Well said,” Glynda agreed. She looked over towards Summer expectantly.</p><p>Summer shrugged. “We talked earlier,” she said warmly, “but I’m glad you felt able to say that to us, Raven. Thank you for choosing to trust us.”</p><p>
  <em>Positive reinforcement of healthy behaviours, woohoo, thank you for the lesson Ruby!</em>
</p><p>Raven turned to her and hesitantly held out her arms, not meeting her eyes.</p><p>Summer startled. “Hug?” she squeaked.</p><p>“Quickly,” Raven mumbled, “before I change my mind.”</p><p>Summer skipped into her arms right away and hugged her gently, not wanting to overwhelm her. Tall as she was, Raven’s chin tucked onto the top of Summer’s head, her brief embrace slightly awkward but warm all the same.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Physicality</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Summer's gay as all heck.</p><p>No chapter specific content warnings. Implied childhood trauma and injury, but it's not detailed.</p><p>I keep forgetting to write this, but all chapters are beta'd by the delightful <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eternalmetalhead/pseuds/Eternalmetalhead">Eternalmetalhead</a>!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <hr/><p>For their second and third days at Beacon, classes had been mostly knowledge-based. They covered simple, foundational things like Grimm types, Aura, and Dust, to make sure all the students had the same essential baseline.</p><p>There was no combat training scheduled until week three, but their timetable allocated plenty of free time to use as they pleased. They were encouraged to spar with their teammates and get used to each other.</p><p>Glynda had wanted to use that time, and the rest of them had agreed. Summer still hadn’t had a chance to see Glynda or Raven fight, and had only seen Kali fight for a brief moment; Summer was practically vibrating with the anticipation.</p><p>So, on their free afternoon of day four, Glynda booked a training room and set out some rules. Two of them would spar at a time, while the other two watched. They’d rotate, the loser swapping out, until all of them had fought each other at least twice. Fight to pin or yield (not to aura break) with no semblances and no weapons. Just pure hand-to-hand practice for their first session.</p><p>Glynda asked Kali to dial back her natural strength so the spars were less taxing.</p><p>Even then, she still hit <em>hard.</em></p><p>Glynda and Raven had taken the first spar, with Kali and Summer watching. Their team was clearly more trained than her opponent, her movements precise, graceful, and textbook, although she was less physically strong and definitely less experienced.</p><p>On the other hand, Raven was rough, with little technique. It looked as though she hadn’t been formally trained. But her instincts were excellent, and she was clearly used to fighting, though with her scars that was no surprise.</p><p>In the end Glynda won with an elaborate hold. Raven stepped out, Kali stepped in, and the next spar was over very fast indeed. Kali moved fluidly, expertly, her whole body loose and responsive, adaptive. There were moments where she moved almost like a dancer, redirecting and deflecting and outmanoeuvring with almost no visible effort, and moments where she moved with such startling efficiency and directness and pure power that it was almost scary.</p><p>Weiss had once said to Summer that Yang was the best unarmed fighter she had ever met, and that Blake was one of the best fighters with a blade. Summer had never met either of them, or seen them fight, but it was as if Kali had two fighters within her; one graceful, flowing and acrobatic, one grounded, solid and powerful. Two different ways of moving, and she switched between them as needed.</p><p>Summer wondered who had taught Kali which.</p><p>They realised that they could all learn a lot more by sparring with Kali than with each other – that wasn’t a surprise since she was their hand-to-hand specialist. After that, it was like a team-bonding exercise. Each of them took turns against Kali, who utterly wiped the floor with them, and gave them feedback every time.</p><p>With Kali’s level of technique and training, Raven got completely shut down despite her longer reach. Glynda was predictable to her, Kali reading her like a book and deftly outmanoeuvring her at every point.</p><p>Since her semblance gave her such an advantage over most people in close-quarters, Summer had trained a great deal both with and without her semblance or weapon. She’d done more training of hand-to-hand in her life than she had with shooting.</p><p>She still didn’t even come close to keeping up with Kali.</p><p>With her right arm braced by her left, Summer deflected Kali’s jab. Kali was being gentle, but the jabs were still heavy. She quickly kicked out towards Kali’s legs in response, and Kali smoothly blocked with her metal shin.</p><p>
  <em>Ow!</em>
</p><p>It was like kicking, well, metal. She should probably have seen that coming.</p><p>Kali advanced as Summer fell back, pushed back towards the edge of the ring with those jabs. Summer already knew how getting cornered by Kali would end, and she didn’t fancy losing like that again – she knew she’d have some absurd bruises later. Kali’s rhythms were syncopated, and she was good at hiding patterns and habits. But having seen Kali’s last match against Raven from the side, Summer knew how fast Kali’s left hand could return to guard after a jab.</p><p>So she ducked and quickly stepped in below Kali’s returning arm, swinging a fast right hook towards Kali’s left side. Kali twisted her torso and blocked it with her right forearm, but Summer hadn’t expected something that simple to hit anyway. She feinted another kick, which turned into a step, jumping up off Kali’s metal knee as her teammate fell for the feint and raised her leg to block again.</p><p>Summer sent her knee hurtling towards Kali’s chin, but Kali gracefully swayed back out of reach, her left hand snaking out to grab Summer’s leg. She pulled Summer back down and swung her into the ground. It wasn’t full force, this wasn’t a full contact spar, but the impact was hard enough that Summer knew her back was going to bruise where she’d landed.</p><p>
  <em>Hey, at least it’ll match the ones on the front from earlier.</em>
</p><p>Kali dropped to pin her and Summer almost used her semblance on instinct, but managed not to; that was how she’d lost her third spar with Kali, by breaking the rules and moving through herself. Instead she turned, wriggled, managed to reverse the hold before Kali could finish it. Kali brute-forced her way out with her absurd strength and switched to an arm bar so quickly that Summer barely had time to register it.</p><p>She knew there was no way out of that, especially with Kali’s strength. She tapped out, and Kali released her and helped her to her feet.</p><p>Summer tried not to think about how physically strong Kali was. Not out of ego, or embarrassment at losing, or anything like that, but certainly not about how Kali could carry her or lift her with no effort. Nope.</p><p>“You caught me by surprise at the end there,” Kali said, “and that was a good, fast step-in. Let’s repeat it but slower – Raven, watch closely.”</p><p>Kali directed Raven’s attention as they re-enacted how Summer had stepped in under Kali’s jab. Kali talked throughout about the ways she could have responded, Summer’s footwork, how Summer had shifted her weight, how she’d discouraged Kali from striking by threatening her unguarded left side, but hadn’t overcommitted to the hook.</p><p>Then Kali brought Raven in, and had Raven go through the motion, first slowly, then faster, then full speed. She switched them around and had Raven jab while Kali stepped in, showing her different ways Kali could be trying to attack, and different ways that Raven could respond to each.</p><p>Since Raven was the least formally trained, Kali spent the most time during the breakdowns focussed on her, explaining how and why she was moving the way she was. Raven listened intently, and watched closely.</p><p>After a few more rounds, Kali was starting to tire. She stepped out to watch from the side while the others took turns against each other. After each spar, she broke it down to give them time for their aura to recover, and showed them their mistakes and the moments where they could have done something better.</p><p>With Kali outside the ring, Glynda and Summer traded wins, Raven sparring plenty against each of them. In the end, Raven took a few rounds off Glynda and Summer, her longer reach and physical stamina beginning to give her more and more of an edge. By the time their booking for that training room ran out, they were all exhausted. They cooled down, cleaned up, and went for dinner, even Summer was too tired to trash-talk anymore.</p><p>The spars became a regular thing in their free time after that. Sometimes they were alone, but sometimes they were joined by TRQS, with Tai, Kali and Neo taking the lead together to bring the others up to speed. Tai wasn’t as strong as Kali and favoured his upper body more, but had similar experience and knowledge. Neo was no stronger than Summer, but Summer never even landed a hit; Neo was absolutely surgical, and spent a lot of time improving the defence of the whole group. Even Tai and Kali learned a lot from her.</p><p>The days passed in a mixture of classes, time-off, and sparring, and the eight of them volunteered to help Penny finish the inventory in the evenings – with all of them working together, it was done within the first week.</p><p>They didn’t talk about the elephant in the room until the second week.</p>
<hr/><p>“All I’m saying,” Summer continued, gesturing with a breadstick, “is that names are an important part of how anything feels. If something’s a part of your life, I think a name can deepen that connection.”</p><p>“I’m not naming my sword,” grumbled Raven, sitting across from her on the floor. “That’s more Qrow’s kind of thing.”</p><p>“I don’t have a separate weapon,” Kali said, taking a sip of lemonade, “but I agree with Summer here. The blade in my prosthetic foot is a part of me and I don’t feel a need to name it or my leg. But I think your sword is part of you in a totally different way. That’s why you take care of it so much, you practically cuddle it in your sleep, Raven.”</p><p>Summer looked over at Kali. “She does?” she asked excitedly.</p><p>Raven blushed a little. “I do not,” she lied.</p><p>“You do,” Glynda confirmed.</p><p>Raven’s expression faltered. “It’s not affection,” she said quietly, “I’m just used to keeping my weapon close while I sleep. That’s all.”</p><p>“I didn’t mean affection,” Summer clarified. “I meant <em>connection.</em> You take care of your sword and keep it in good condition so that you know you can count on it. Keeping it in reach when your guard is down is just common sense for a Hunter. I don’t think you’d ever want to completely replace it, would you?”</p><p>“Of course not,” Raven answered immediately.</p><p>“And why not?” Summer asked.</p><p>Raven paused. “I’m used to it,” she said eventually, setting her glass down. “It just fits me. There aren’t many things you can rely on in Remnant. I know I can rely on that sword.”</p><p>“And that’s part of how I feel about Rosethorn,” Summer nodded. “They’re not just weapons.”</p><p>Kali’s ears pricked. “Rosethorn?” she chuckled.</p><p>“It’s a good name, isn't it?” Summer preened.</p><p>“Roses don’t have thorns,” Kali laughed.</p><p>There was a moment of silence.</p><p>“Kali,” Summer said patiently, “those are what the little stabby bits are.”</p><p>Glynda swallowed the wrong way and coughed, spluttering with laughter.</p><p>Kali shook her head, grinning. “Thorns are specialised branches or stems, like hawthorn. But prickles grow from the cuticle of a stem and cover it more evenly. Roses have prickles, not thorns.”</p><p>Summer tried to think of some kind of response besides ‘Nuh-uh!’</p><p>“I didn’t know that,” Raven replied.</p><p>“Neither did Summer,” Kali giggled.</p><p>“I’m <em>not</em> renaming it to ‘Roseprickle’,” said Summer hotly.</p><p>“Roseprickle would sound worse,” Glynda agreed hoarsely, having cleared her throat.</p><p>“And a name’s about the feeling, not technicalities,” Summer said, “and we’re getting off track here, we’re supposed to be helping Raven name her sword.”</p><p>“Have you named your weapon, Glynda?” Raven asked quickly.</p><p>“Yes, ‘The Disciplinarian’, and don’t change the subject,” Glynda replied.</p><p>“Your riding crop is called ‘The Disciplinarian’?” Kali asked, as Summer blushed. Until that moment, Summer had assumed that she’d overinterpreted Glynda’s aesthetic.</p><p>Glynda took another sip from her glass before she answered. “Yes.”</p><p>Kali nodded thoughtfully. “I mean,” she said, “I really didn’t think it was a horse-riding thing, what with the outfit and the attitude and–” she gestured up and down Glynda, and said, “<em>you.</em> But I still admire the guts to call it that.”</p><p>“Thank you,” Glynda replied.</p><p>“You’re suddenly quiet, Summer,” Kali teased, “cat got your tongue?”</p><p>Summer’s glass slipped straight through her own hands in a burst of white petals. Glynda’s fingers flicked towards her and she caught it with her telekinesis before it spilled. She held it still for Summer to pick it back up when she was ready.</p><p>Over the past nine days, the team had gotten pretty used to Summer’s clumsiness (especially in the morning) and they didn’t mock her for it. Due to her semblance, Glynda in particular looked out for her. No-one laughed at her dropping the glass.</p><p>Summer took her glass back with slightly shaky hands.</p><p>“I’m sorry,” Kali said gently. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”</p><p>Summer shook her head quickly. “I’m not,” she replied way too fast. “Just surprised.” <em>And gay, oh gods.</em></p><p>“Was it the discussion about my weapon that flustered you?” Glynda asked patiently. “Or what Kali said?”</p><p>Summer felt her cheeks heat further. “Both.”</p><p>Kali winced. “I didn’t think about my wording there. I meant it as in the expression, not… more specific.”</p><p>Across from Summer, Raven shifted a little.</p><p>“I know I can be flirty,” Kali continued, “and we all tease each other a lot. If any of you want, I can stop making jokes that are flirtatious.”</p><p>Summer swallowed. <em>Oh no, how do you phrase this without making things more awkward or sounding desperate?</em></p><p>“I’m comfortable either way,” Glynda said, “Raven, Summer, this is up to you.”</p><p>Summer took a sip of her lemonade to delay talking, hoping that Raven would talk first. But it was Raven, and she was the least chatty of any of them. So, Summer ran out of time to stall, and didn’t want to wait until a later conversation.</p><p>“I’m comfortable too,” she said finally, her voice surprisingly even. “I’m just not used to it, and getting surprised can set off Overlap. It’s fine by me.”</p><p>Kali offered Summer her hand, and Summer took it and briefly squeezed back.</p><p>Glynda looked over at Raven. “You don’t have to answer right now,” she reassured.</p><p>Raven fidgeted with her closed scroll between her fingertips. Her mouth opened and closed a few times before she took a deep breath.</p><p>“I, uh–,” Raven said uncertainly, “that depends on whether it’s just a joke, or if you mean it in a… flirtatious way.”</p><p>Summer hadn’t thought the tension in the room could get any heavier, but Glynda and Kali didn’t seem to be affected at all.</p><p>“I’ve meant them as jokes,” said Kali, “not serious flirting. When I flirt seriously I ask for permission first.”</p><p>Raven’s shoulders loosened slightly. “OK then,” she said, her voice a little steadier. “Then the jokes are alright with me too.”</p><p>Glynda set down her glass. “We’ve only known each other for a week-and-a-half,” Glynda said, “and I think it might be a good time to discuss this and set boundaries clearly. A direct conversation now avoids problems down the line.”</p><p>Summer put her glass down and took a deep breath.</p><p>“I can go first, if you want?” Glynda asked.</p><p>The others nodded.</p><p>“I am comfortable being flirted with, including if you mean it seriously,” said Glynda. “That goes for any of you. If you are interested, tell me. I know I can keep relationships separate from work, and that I would not allow it to affect my behaviour as leader. I do not play favourites, but I would not want relationships to occur within the team if it would affect how comfortable you feel with each other. Your wellbeing is as important as my own.”</p><p>Some of the tension dissipated.</p><p>“I fluster easily,” said Summer, looking down at her glass because this would be so much easier without eye contact. “I mean, obviously I do. But that’s not discomfort. Nothing you’ve said or done has made me uncomfortable.”</p><p>She licked her dry lips, and went on. “I’m also OK with it being… more than a joke. If you want.”</p><p>“Just to be clear,” Glynda asked, “who is the ‘you’ in that sentence?”</p><p>Summer gestured around the group. “It’s not specific,” she replied. “I’m lesbian, and you’re all amazing. But yeah. Glynda’s right. We shouldn’t make a mess of the team; we need to work together. We should be clear about what we mean, and make sure all of us are comfortable with the way we are around each other.”</p><p>In the corner of her eye, Summer saw Kali look over towards Raven, her head tilted questioningly.</p><p>“I don’t know,” Raven said, her voice so small that Summer looked up. Raven looked troubled, her scarlet eyes away from them all.</p><p>“I don’t mind how you are with each other,” her partner said. “I’m comfortable with that. If you want to explore it or date, go ahead. But… I wouldn’t be comfortable with you flirting seriously with me. You’re my teammates. I’m still adjusting to that, and to us becoming friends.”</p><p>Raven’s hands tightened a little on the hem of her skirt as she pulled her knees closer together. “I haven’t had many friends,” she said quietly.</p><p>Kali glanced over towards Summer. Summer shook her head subtly, she hadn’t known anything about this.</p><p>“I’ve been enjoying the past nine days,” Raven continued. “I don’t want to risk that. It’s hard enough to adjust to all this.” She gestured around the room. “The school, the room, the people. It was Qrow that wanted to be a Hunter, not me – I just wanted to stay close to him to make sure he was safe. I didn’t expect to like any of it, but I think I do. I need to focus on dealing with how things have changed. I’m not ready for anyone to flirt with me.”</p><p>She fell silent for a moment.</p><p>“And I don’t think,” Raven added after a deep breath, “that I should apologise for that...”</p><p>“No way,” Summer said immediately, accidentally cutting off Glynda’s rebuttal. “Raven, that’s not something you should apologise for.”</p><p>“Precisely,” Glynda said, “it is exactly what this conversation is about. You set your boundaries.”</p><p>Kali nodded in agreement. “And I know that can’t have been easy to say,” Kali reassured. “Thank you.”</p><p>Raven sighed and her shoulders relaxed.</p><p>“And that leaves me,” said Kali. “I know I can keep relationships separate from teamwork too, and when I have partners, I treat them equally. As Glynda put it earlier, no playing favourites. Raven, I won’t flirt with you. Glynda, Summer, do I have your permission?”</p><p>“Yes,” Glynda said, her smooth voice dipping just a little.</p><p>“Yep,” Summer said eagerly.</p><p>“Kali, Summer,” Glynda asked, still with <em>that</em> voice, “do I have yours?”</p><p>“Yghgh,” Summer choked.</p><p>“Yes,” Kali said easily.</p><p>“Is that all alright with you, Raven?” Glynda checked.</p><p>“Yes,” Raven said, much less tense than she’d been a minute ago.</p><p>“Well,” Kali said, “I think that’s enough for us to think about for one night. We shouldn't act on it right now; we should all think it over for a few days or weeks to make sure. Unless anyone has something else they want to say right now?”</p><p>No-one did, so Glynda plucked up her scroll. “It’s still pretty early,” she said, “how about a movie night? We could invite TRQS?”</p><p>They did, and not even ten minutes later, Glynda, Robyn, Summer and Neo were sitting shoulder-to-shoulder on Summer’s bed, backs against pillows piled up to the wall. Tai, Kali, Qrow and Raven sat on Kali’s bunk above. Kali’s scroll was propped up on the edge of her bed, projecting a truly abysmal low-budget horror film onto the opposite wall of their dorm room. Summer had no idea where Kali kept finding these films, and somehow the subtitles didn’t help to make the film’s plot or dialogue even slightly comprehensible.</p><p>She, Neo and Robyn chatted with each other by text on their scrolls, since Summer’s signing wasn’t good enough for things like that.</p><p>Robyn thought that the hero’s name <em>(Was he even the hero? It was incredibly hard to tell.)</em> couldn’t possibly be ‘Breakfast’ as the subtitles proclaimed. Neo thought it might be, but the sound quality was so bad that it was unclear. Summer agreed with Robyn until one somehow-clear line confirmed that his name was indeed Breakfast, which had Summer laughing so hard she could barely breathe.</p><p>By the time the film neared its end, they had something of a horror trope bingo sheet going between the four of them, with Glynda joining in after being intrigued by Summer’s near hysterical laughter. They got most of their guesses right.</p><p>As the villain advanced, Neo pretended to be scared, dramatically snuggling in to Summer’s shoulder and peeking through her eyes at the screen, her irises switching colours with her exaggerated blinks. Summer followed suit, tucking an arm around Neo and leaning the both of them into Robyn’s side, screwing her eyes closed.</p><p>Robyn looped an arm around Summer’s shoulders to pat Neo’s back soothingly, promising to protect them both. Glynda rolled her eyes at the three and started to feed each of them breadsticks using her semblance, the bowl balanced in her lap.</p><p>Summer felt the last of her tension melt away. She’d confessed her interest and it hadn’t instantly blown up in her face; things were already going better than Signal, that was for sure.</p><p>Movie nights would go on to become a regular thing for the eight of them. But throughout that evening, wonderful as it was, Summer couldn’t shake something that Raven had said. She hadn’t thought about it at first, initially dismissing it as normal for a Hunter.</p><p>
  <em>“I’m just used to keeping my weapon close while I sleep.”</em>
</p><p>Raven wasn’t shy about her scars, she didn’t try to hide them. One thing Summer had noticed pretty quickly was that they were <em>old.</em> Faded, healed, some more so than others, but almost all of the scars were distorted out of their original shape by the growth of her body. If she had any recent scars, Summer hadn’t seen them yet.</p><p>At the back of her head, she found herself wondering, <em>how many years has Raven been sleeping with a weapon.</em></p><p>Maybe Raven could understand how it felt to be afraid of falling asleep.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Whispers Under Distant Stars</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>A few fun things today: Qrow finds his style, Robyn gets some good news. Less fun, Raven and Summer find common ground. &lt;3</p><p>See end notes for some stuff about writing and how The Happy Huntresses have changed as I've written this story.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <hr/><p>“You!” Summer exclaimed, pointing over her pasta salad at Qrow.</p><p>Qrow startled. “Me?”</p><p>“Team GSBR have talked–” Summer said.</p><p>“Summer talked,” Kali corrected.</p><p>“–and we have decided–”</p><p>“Summer decided.”</p><p>“–that your unfashionable ways have gone on too long!” she cried, “Your style is dragging down Team Stark Burgundy. It’s time for an intervention!”</p><p>Qrow looked down at his clothes. “What’s wrong with a t-shirt and sweatpants?” he asked.</p><p>“And what’s ‘Team Stark Burgundy’?” Robyn interjected. “Please tell me that my hearing aid just malfunctioned and she didn’t say what I think she did...”</p><p>Neo signed something very quickly to Robyn, and Robyn and Glynda laughed. Probably something at Summer’s expense. Meanies.</p><p>“It’s what Summer has taken to calling the eight of us,” Kali nodded.</p><p>Robyn snorted, violet eyes rolling affectionately, then her snort turned to a chuckle. “Wait, spelt STRQ BRGN?” she laughed. “She made herself team leader of all of us?”</p><p>“This is a terrible idea,” Qrow muttered.</p><p>“What’s a terrible idea?” Tai asked as he sat down at the canteen table on Qrow’s right.</p><p>“Summer being the team leader,” Qrow replied.</p><p>Tai nodded. “That’s a terrible idea,” he agreed.</p><p>“Hey!” Summer scowled.</p><p>“Is Summer talking about Qrow’s dress sense yet?” Raven asked as she sat to Summer’s left and reached for the salt.</p><p>Summer raised her hand to draw the focus back to her before continuing. “The eight of us have overlapping styles. But Qrow’s affliction of wearing activewear outside the gym is breaking our image. It’s crushing our style. Harshing our mellow.”</p><p>Tai nodded solemnly. “She’s right,” he said, and Qrow groaned.</p><p>“Is she making sense to you?” Glynda asked Kali.</p><p>“As much as usual,” Kali shrugged.</p><p>Summer pointed at Raven. “Red and black.” Then she pointed at herself. “Red, black and white. Kali: black and gold. Glynda: black, purple and white. Neo: white, black, pink and brown. Robyn: white and grey. Qrow: black and red. Tai: brown, grey, and gold. We all share at least a few colours. But the rest of us are style icons on the battlefield, and you need a makeover, Qrow.”</p><p>“This isn’t important,” Qrow said, “And how is Tai a style icon? He doesn’t even wear things with sleeves!”</p><p>“Sleeves don’t suit me,” Tai replied.</p><p>“I’m getting dessert,” Robyn laughed as she got up from her seat. “Have fun, Qrow!”</p><p>“It’s <em>so</em> important,” Summer insisted as she waved a temporary goodbye to Robyn, “and today is Saturday, so after lunch Raven and I will be going clothes shopping with you in Vale.”</p><p>Raven looked sharply across at her. “What?”</p><p>“Your fashion sense is awesome, and you two need to match cause you’re twins,” Summer explained.</p><p>Raven looked over at Qrow thoughtfully. “The skirt and thigh-highs might suit him,” she mused.</p><p>“I’m not wearing your outfit,” Qrow said dismissively, “it’s too edgy even for me.”</p><p>“You literally named your weapon ‘Harbinger’, Qrow!” Tai laughed. “You’re equally edgy.”</p><p><em>Can I come with you?</em> Neo signed. Summer had been practising with the others a lot and she was starting to get better at keeping up.</p><p><em>YES!</em> Summer signed back excitedly.</p><p>Qrow sighed. “This is going to happen, isn’t it,” he groaned.</p><p>“It is,” Summer said, Neo nodding enthusiastically.</p><p>“You could have just asked, Summer,” Raven pointed out.</p><p>Summer shrugged. “Being dramatic is more fun,” she replied, “although I didn’t mean match exactly, just keep the colour and tone. I was thinking waistcoat rather than skirt.”
</p><p>Raven nodded. “Grey shirt,” she added, “no tie, rolled sleeves.”</p><p><em>Smart trousers</em>, Neo signed, <em>ankle boots.</em></p><p>“Yessssss,” Summer sparkled.</p><p>“You’re paying then,” Qrow shrugged.</p><p>“As the leader of Team Stark Burgundy,” Summer preened (as Glynda stifled a laugh), “that is a sacrifice I am willing to make.”</p>
<hr/><p>Robyn had the strangest feeling that something was about to happen that day but couldn’t put her finger on it. At first she’d assumed she must have forgotten something, presumably work-related (which, admittedly, would not be the first time!)</p><p>Then, after wracking her brain and checking over her schedule and finding nothing amiss, she’d decided to ignore it. She wasn’t one to believe in premonitions – being a human lie-detector made her pretty much immune to fortune telling scams and the like. So, she'd gone about her day pretty normally, until she found herself staring at a sudden text from Fiona, and she wasn’t sure if it was ominous or exciting because sometimes text was ambiguous like that.</p><p>
  <em>“We’ve got big news, you got a minute?”</em>
</p><p>Instantly her mind started running through possible things it could mean: Grimm attack, trouble in Mantle, their snooty Atlesian teammate doing something, relationship stuff–</p><p>And then she saw that Fiona was typing again, and Robyn swallowed so hard it was actually audible.</p><p><em>“It’s good news!”</em> Fiona added.</p><p>Robyn slumped against the wall.</p><p><em>“Dust Fiona, what the fuck, that was terrifying!!!!!”</em> she typed hastily.</p><p>She could practically see Fiona’s shrug and the tilt of her ears when she replied, <em> “Yeahhhhh, oopsie.”</em></p><p>Robyn gave an exasperated sigh of relief.</p><p><em>“Drumroll please, we’ve been waiting days to share this,”</em> Fiona wrote. <em>“The good news…”</em></p><p>Robyn took a deep breath.</p><p>
  <em>“Is…”</em>
</p><p>And then Joanna snatched away their girlfriend’s moment of glory.</p><p><em>“We have a new Happy Huntress!”</em> Joanna interrupted.</p><p>Robyn almost dropped her scroll.</p><p><em>“Joannaaaaaaaa,”</em> Fiona spammed.</p><p>More than anything, Robyn had wanted to go to the same Academy as her two girlfriends. Sadly, she’d gotten herself arrested by Atlesian police one time (or twenty-six times) too many in her life, and her application had been flatly ignored. Joanna and Fiona had cleaner records, and were able to get in, choosing Atlas so that they could remain close to Mantle and still be active in local support there. Robyn had almost abandoned the idea of getting a Hunter’s License, but it would be too useful to pass up. She’d tried the other Academies, and Beacon had accepted right away.</p><p>So, off Robyn had gone, halfway around the world and suddenly long-distance with her girlfriends. Fiona and Joanna had been saddled with two dreadful teammates who seemed specifically chosen to funnel them towards Atlas’s typical Academy-to-Military pipeline. The first was a Faunus, Trifa, who seemed to be easily misled, and had happily swallowed all the propaganda shovelled at them in class – hook, line, and sinker. The second was one of the actual fucking <em>Marigold family</em>, a spoilt rich kid from a life of privilege who seemed to harbour pure disdain for absolutely everything, as far as Robyn could gather, though her girlfriends rarely messaged about their teammates.</p><p>After all that, she hadn’t expected her girls to get a chance to make any close friends in Atlas, let alone want to add someone to their little group.</p><p>
  <em>Hold on…</em>
</p><p>That begged a question. The three of them called themselves ‘The Happy Huntresses’, both when referring to their activism <em>and</em> to their little polycule.</p><p>Were they talking about a new partner in (sometimes literal) crime, or about a new girlfriend? And either way, who was it?!</p><p>She didn’t even get a chance to type any of that out fully before she had her answers.</p><p><em>“Marigold’s switched teams in more ways than one ;-) if you get me”</em> Fiona wrote.</p><p>Robyn blinked so hard it felt like she had whiplash.</p><p>They sent her a picture. The top of Fiona’s head was in the bottom left corner, with her hand clumsily blocking the top left corner of the screen – she’d definitely improved at taking photos lately. On the right was Joanna, an arm around a person Robyn had never seen before; short blue hair, eyes the colour of lamplight, and light make-up that Robyn recognised as belonging to Fiona.</p><p><em>“Her name’s May,”</em> Fiona added, <em>“and she’s soooooo cuuuuuuute!”</em></p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p><em>She is,</em> Robyn thought blankly, before her brain switched back on again.</p><p><em>“Tell me everything,”</em> Robyn wrote, excited.</p>
<hr/><p>Summer woke up by falling through her bed. The now-familiar textural pattern of sheets and mattress top, then springs, then more springs, then wooden frame, woke her immediately. She let the fall finish, knowing that she was the bottom bunk, with only inches to fall.</p><p>She landed softly on the carpet, deactivated her semblance, and crawled out from beneath her bed as quietly as she could, before climbing back up onto it. She’d still woken up Kali though; Faunus hearing.</p><p>“You alright?” Kali murmured drowsily from her bunk above.</p><p>“Yeah,” Summer sighed, “I’m fine.”</p><p>Kali gave a little half-hum, half-grunt, and drifted off back to sleep. It would take Summer longer; she’d woken up too abruptly.</p><p>She curled up onto her side, palms towards her chest, and took a deep breath. She glanced over at Glynda’s clock on the mantlepiece. Two o’clock. But then her eyes drifted past, to the bed opposite. Raven was sleeping on her side, her whole body curled around her sheathed sword.</p><p>Raven was shaking. Every few seconds she would twitch, her hands gripping the hilt of her weapon tighter for a moment. Though not loud enough to wake someone, seemingly even Kali, but her breathing was irregular and sharp. Summer didn’t get up; she didn’t want Raven to suddenly wake up with anyone in sword-range.</p><p>Two-weeks into term, they all knew that Raven didn’t sleep well – it was just the kind of thing you notice in a dorm room – but Summer hadn’t seen her this bad before.</p><p>Raven jerked awake, suddenly very still. And then slowly, silently, she sat up and looked around the room. She stood up off her bed, sheathed sword clutched close, walked as quietly as she could to the door of their dorm, and let herself out.</p><p>Summer quickly got up, Kali stirring above her. She went to follow Raven, glancing back at Kali, who watched her with bleary, concerned eyes. Summer touched a finger to her lips, opened the door, and followed Raven, just in time to see her by the dim night-lights of the corridor as she turned the corner at the end, her steps uneven.</p><p>Summer followed quietly at a distance as Raven went from corridor to corridor, up two flights of stairs, and then through a door Summer didn’t recognise.</p><p>She quietly approached and looked at the label on the glass door; <em>Quiet Room.</em> Through the glass, she could see inside.</p><p>It was wide, with chairs and couches and low tables evenly spaced across it. Raven had passed by them to the full-length window that replaced the external wall of the room. The huge window faced away from Vale, out over a few of Beacon’s buildings and towards the Emerald Forest and the mountains in the distance. The shattered moon was bright, as full as it could be, the shapes of the buildings and roughness of the trees barely visible by its light.</p><p>Raven sat down in the middle of the room, right in front of the window, with her knees up to her chest and her sword on her right, gripped tightly with one hand.</p><p>As softly as she could, Summer knocked on the door. Raven turned a little, glanced back at her, and looked away again out the window.</p><p>Summer opened the door, and stepped in. She gave Raven a wide berth, crossing the room to sit in the far-right corner of the window. For a while, she said nothing, and Raven said nothing.</p><p>Then Summer broke the silence. “Do you want to talk?” she asked softly.</p><p>“I don’t know what to say,” Raven replied after a long moment. “Sleeping can be… difficult. People don’t understand that.”</p><p>Summer grimaced. “I know what it’s like to struggle with sleeping,” she replied quietly. “It might be different, but would it help if I talked about why?”</p><p>At first, she thought Raven hadn’t heard her, but then her partner stirred suddenly and spoke.</p><p>“…Tell me. Please.”</p><p>Summer let out a slow breath.</p><p>“It’s easier now,” she started, “but I found my semblance when I was seven. Pretty young to find a semblance, especially one this dangerous.</p><p>“I didn’t know how it worked or why, or how to switch it off. You’ve seen me in the mornings, imagine that but worse and all the time. School went to shit because I suddenly couldn’t even stay inside one room for long. The way I moved through myself and objects all the time scared all my friends away. Everything turned bad, but sleep was the worst.”</p><p>She looked out towards the moon. “My bed at the time was low to the floor, it was a kid’s bed. So when I fell through it I didn’t usually wake up. And then when Overlap triggered again I’d fall through the floor of my bedroom and wake up by landing face-first in the living room. That was usually enough to knock out my aura. Broke three bones in the first year, and I was one of those people who vomits when their aura breaks. Hell of a way to wake up in the middle of the night.”</p><p>Raven winced. “Yeah,” she agreed.</p><p>“After the first few nights, my parents moved me to their bed,” Summer continued. “If anything that was worse. It’s awful; to move through a person when you reach out, like you’re not even there. And as far as I knew I could have just fallen through the whole house and kept falling, pulled by gravity with no way to stop myself, down into the earth, alone. I thought I could get stuck inside things. That I could drown in the world, like anything was quicksand.”</p><p>“Thankfully, that’s not how it works,” Summer said, “but we didn’t know that. We also didn’t know that I couldn’t breathe if my mouth and nose were inside something.</p><p>“One night my face started to slip into the surface of the bed, but the rest of me didn’t Overlap. I couldn’t breathe. The shock woke me up right away, and that woke my parents. We thought I could have died.</p><p>“Going fully unconscious, not just asleep, knocks out my semblance, so I’d have been pushed back out and survived. But we didn’t know that then. We didn’t know what to do. How do you stop a seven year-old who can move through anything she touches? I got so scared of sleep that I went days at a time without it. It was killing me. Then I had to take a sleeping pill every night just so I could get some rest before something went wrong, and those pills weren’t designed for people my age. The side effects were hell at quarter-dose, but it was the only thing we could do. So, yeah… Sleep was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever faced.”</p><p>She looked over at Raven, whose hand had loosened on her weapon.</p><p>“How did you recover?” Raven asked softly.
</p><p>“Therapy,” Summer sighed. “That, and they started to train my aura when I was awake. We looked for how my semblance worked, any way I could learn to control it. I practiced constantly, even when I wasn’t meant to. I practiced alone until my aura broke so much it stopped making me sick. By the time I was nine, I was about the same during the day as I am in the mornings now. By eleven, I didn’t need sleeping pills anymore, incidentally it turns out they have withdrawal when you use them that much for that long. The last time I fell through the floor was four days after my twelfth birthday. The last panic attack I had while moving inside something was at fourteen. I’m still improving, I’m still recovering.”</p><p>“But feeling safe when I’m asleep?” Summer continued quietly, “That took a lot longer. I fell through my bed a little before you woke up, that’s how I was awake to see you leave our room. It happens once or twice a year now, and even at my worst I don’t panic anymore. I love the things I can do with my semblance now, but it hasn’t always been this way. It feels complicated.</p><p>“I don’t know what you’ve been through,” Summer said, shuffling closer towards Raven, “but I remember what you said the other night – that you’re used to keeping your weapon close while you sleep. I just want you to know that you’re not on your own. Even though it’s not the same, I know how fear stays even when you’re not in danger anymore.”</p><p>Summer reached out with her hand, and gently rested it on Raven’s atop her sword. Raven’s hand slowly turned, and held hers.</p><p>“Anytime you can’t sleep,” Summer offered, “you can wake me up so you’re not on your own.” She looked ahead out the window. “I didn’t know this room was here. It’s a lovely view at night.”</p><p>Raven stirred.</p><p>“It helps,” Raven said quietly, “to be able to see a long way.”</p><p>Summer stayed quiet, gently holding Raven’s hand.</p><p>“Qrow and I,” Raven continued, “were found by bandits after a Grimm attack. Two babies. They were thieves, not heartless, so they took us in. Named us. We grew up on the move, out in Mistral, with no town walls to shield us from Grimm. We all took turns keeping watch, us too when we were old enough.</p><p>“You had to sleep light. And as soon as we could safely hold knives, they gave us one each. Everyone slept with a weapon, just in case. It saved our lives, again and again, from Grimm and from people. But more than anyone else, Qrow and I were like magnets to the Grimm.”</p><p>Summer squeezed Raven’s hand softly. Raven squeezed back.</p><p>“When we were ten or so,” said Raven, her expression softening just a little, “our Clan did some business with another criminal network. The leader of that group came to the camp. He saw us there. He talked to the Clan, and they sent us away with him to Vale. He could give us things they never could have: a roof over our heads, food on the table every day, safety from Grimm. Things any child should have. And without us to draw them in, Clan Branwen would be safer from Grimm too, it wasn’t a selfless choice.”</p><p>Raven let go of Summer’s hand, her hands folding over her knees. “We didn’t trust him, of course. We thought we were so clever, that we were using his kindness for food and shelter. We thought that we were stealing from him, just like his own motto, ‘Lie, cheat, steal, and survive.’ But months turned to years, and he proved we could trust him. He did his best to keep his work away from us. He forged documents for us: birth certificates, ID, school records. He gave us everything we needed to build our weapons. Him and Hei gave us a life. They helped Qrow apply for Beacon, and helped me to join him when I asked to.”</p><p>“There was this weird moment last year,” Raven said, her voice soft and warm in a way that Summer hadn’t heard her speak before, “where Qrow called him ‘Dad’. I didn’t even think about it before then, but he is. Roman’s our Dad. Hei too. Roman cried, I think we all did.</p><p>“But I still can’t sleep without my sword. Seven years of safety and when the sun goes down it’s like I’m still on watch. Qrow’s adjusted, but I haven’t. I… it’s not pathetic. Is it? It’s not weakness.”</p><p>“No,” Summer replied.</p><p>Raven nodded, and the two of them sat together, looking out to the moon. Eventually Raven started to fall asleep where she was sitting, body curled. She kept waking back up. Summer herself couldn’t sleep.</p><p>“Rest,” Summer said gently, shifting closer so that Raven could lean against her, “I’ve got you. I’ll keep watch.”</p><p>Raven’s head rested on Summer’s shoulder, and she made a small grunt in reply, already drifting off.</p><p>Summer looped her left arm across Raven’s shoulders to support her, and waited for the Sun to rise.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Some of you may have wondered what it means for the Happy Huntresses that Robyn has gone to Beacon instead of Atlas. The reason for that is because the original plan was to have Team STRQ and team BRGN (Kali Belladonna, Robyn, Glynda, Neo). That plan went out the window on day two of planning, to give us GSBR and TRQS. And then the fic utterly ballooned in scope and the number of ships and side characters, so Fiona, Joanna, and May now end up getting mentioned and having a few scenes in the story, so they had to have a fourth teammate. At first, that fourth teammate was planned to be Terra Cotta, but then I decided to switch her onto a different team I'll be introducing soon, and swapped her for a different character whose name also begins with a T; Trifa. </p><p>Trifa is basically not a character in the show, but a world without White Fang or oppression of Faunus makes for some very different life choices for some characters, notably her and Sienna. Trifa’s a goon who does what she’s told by a charismatic leader (reflected here by how she's totally suckered in by Atlas's propaganda machine), and Sienna’s driven by a passion for justice and the defence of others by methods including violence (and she is in this fic too, becoming a Huntress to do that). Sienna will be showing up as a minor character, but I don’t expect Trifa to really play any role in this story, but then this fic basically fuckin’ writes itself so who knows lmao.</p><p>Fiona is the team leader of TMGT, Telemagenta.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Living Dead Girl</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Last week Raven opened up about some of her trauma, and Summer opened up about some of her own. This week, it’s time for some sparring, and to take a proper dive into how Summer fights against people when her semblance is in play.</p>
<p>This chapter requires a content warning. This is the most intense scene of body horror that this story will have. As in the tags, the body horror comes from Summer’s semblance, and no-one is injured. What happens in this chapter will be discussed, but there will not be another scene with this level of body horror.</p>
<p>As for the chapter title, I like to make music references when I feel like one fits. Summer’s semblance lets her move through anything, including people; how could I not reference a song with the lyrics, “Crawl on me, sink into me”?</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <hr/>
<p>It was their first combat training session with semblances. After warmups, Professor Calavera had paired them off at random and divided the larger training room into smaller arenas marked by the edges of floor mats.</p>
<p>One-to-one, full contact, with semblances allowed. “But exercise restraint,” Calavera had warned, “You’re all at different levels of training. I just want to get a look at your starting point before I allow weapons.”</p>
<p>Summer had ended up with Tai.</p>
<p>She’d known he wasn’t as physically strong as Kali, but he was still ridiculous.</p>
<p>And his semblance?</p>
<p>Terrifying.</p>
<p>Summer had just tried to feel things out at first. She outboxed him with her advantages in speed and footwork, to see if his guard and movements had changed much now that they were sparring with semblances rather than without. His movements were the same. She withheld her own semblance to start with, not wanting him to get used to it.</p>
<p>Tai had gladly played that game, exchanging jabs, low-committal kicks, compact movements. It had been going so well.</p>
<p>Until Summer realised that at the place where he blocked her hits, his veins pulsed slightly with golden light. It wasn’t the kind of thing you looked at in a spar, so for the first few exchanges she hadn’t noticed. When she did notice, she didn’t like it.</p>
<p>Because she remembered what Ruby and Weiss had said about their old teammates. About Yang Xiao-Long’s semblance; store the energy of hits she’d taken, double it, and get stronger with a burst of heat and red, red eyes.</p>
<p>Kali got the eyes and the high baseline strength, only the activation boosted her speed and made her hard to see. But Tai? He must have gotten the storage component. It was rare for a parent’s semblance to affect their children’s so directly.</p>
<p>And the moment Summer realised it, she got a dreadful sinking feeling and knew she couldn’t keep outboxing him. The longer she danced around him, the more power he’d have to hit her with.</p>
<p>He saw her realise it and refused to let her change the rhythm of the fight, using his height and reach and greater striking distance to keep her out and close off her options. He’d seen her step-in, he knew how fast she was, and he stayed patient, quick, and compact.</p>
<p>She stopped blocking fully, and switched to slipping past his attacks, trying to give him the minimum energy from each interaction as she looked for the moment to apply her own semblance.</p>
<p>Until finally, it arrived.</p>
<p>Tai had her cornered by this point, using combinations of flicker jabs and feints to discourage her from trying to move out from the corner of the mat. But his height gave him a weakness that she doubted had been exploited before; the distance between his striking height and the ground.</p>
<p>She stepped in below a jab and Tai immediately switched to a right straight counterpunch directly at her head.</p>
<p>It would have hit. Except she’d been touching the floor constantly for a while now, concentrating aura in the soles of her feet whilst Tai had been pressuring her. She kept a careful count of the seconds, until the conditions for her semblance had been met and she pushed her aura down through her leading foot, triggering Overlap. Her foot, the left, sank down into the ground and she dropped low mid step-in, his counterpunch passing over her head.</p>
<p>When she ended the overlap, the pushback shunted her left leg up out of the floor and she moved with the momentum, stretching like she was doing a splits, and she kicked, her foot lashing straight out, low to the ground at an inhuman angle towards his legs.</p>
<p>Most people would have been hit by it. But he’d seen her semblance on day one, and he adjusted his balance and lunged back, his foot passing out of reach. <em>Plan B, then.</em> Her hands met the floor and she bent her leading leg at the knee, advanced in a low whirling step and pivoted as fast as she could to catch his retreat, her right leg sweeping his ankles and sending him crashing down onto the mat.</p>
<p>The flash of gold when he landed was visible. Not a glow, a flash. <em>Probably a bad sign.</em></p>
<p>She lunged forward, the sweep already turning to a step as she rotated her foot beyond the limit of a human ankle just so she could step faster. Because she’d kept contact with the floor throughout, she could still use her semblance with the mat. So, in a split-second she overlapped her back foot with the floor. At the same instant, she sank her fingertips into the mat and curled her hands, ending overlap within the pads of her fingertips below the bottom surface of the mat. She pulled with her fingertips on the underside of the mat as if she was a climber gripping a crack in a rock face.</p>
<p>She rolled, pulled with her arms and pushed with her back leg, and ended Overlap. The combined pull and acceleration from being pushed out of the mat at her fingers and foot added to her speed, as she kept her right leg straight, spun, and struck.</p>
<p>To any observer, it made no visual or anatomical sense, and the tiny adjustments and momentary shifts she’d had to make were all-but invisible. All they saw was that Summer had kicked, swept, and then quickly half-rolled half-flipped partly through herself, her right leg moving in a full circle, blurring like a whip in its speed, to crash down in a vicious axe kick that hit Tai straight in the chest.</p>
<p>The pulse of gold made her blink this time, and even with their auras, Tai had the breath knocked out of him.</p>
<p>Summer pressed her advantage, abandoning the floor and lunging onto him to pin him, looking to force a yield before she found out exactly what his semblance could do.</p>
<p>Her knees blocked his legs, as she punched down at him with her right hand, trying to force him to block, while her left hand touched the side of his ribcage; with another two seconds of sustained contact from her palm, she could overlap with him and then he wouldn’t be able to touch her. Whatever strength he’d gained wouldn’t be able to be used against her directly unless he broke physical contact first.</p>
<p>She had just enough time to realise that his hair glowed with a soft golden light, stirring in a non-existent breeze, and that there was a low, faint humming sound at the very edge of her hearing.</p>
<p>Then he caught her punch with one hand, the glow brightening, and tapped her just above her bellybutton with the fingertips of his other hand.</p>
<p>It wasn’t physical strength that hit her. It didn’t even hurt in the first moment, there was no impact, it just felt like a tap. But the response to that little touch was utterly disproportionate. Her whole body felt a shockwave, as if something a short distance away had exploded; a sharp, concussive pulse. She was moved by it as if he’d shoved her, sending her flying backwards, hitting the mat hard.</p>
<p>Her ears were ringing, her hands were buzzing, she was physically trembling, as if the force of the movement reverberated through her from head to toe.</p>
<p>It had only been a light tap. What the <em>fuck?!</em></p>
<p>She scrambled to her feet, Tai already back up and advancing fast, hair glowing brightly, his slitted amber cat-eyes calm, a slightly cocky grin quirking at his lips.</p>
<p>He batted aside her desperate jab and pressed in with two body shots that staggered her and made her feet leave the ground each time, preventing her from using the floor again. The shaking got worse, and it wasn’t just from being winded. She used Overlap to let the soft tissue of her tummy collapse into itself a little where he hit her the second time, trying to cushion the impact. Usually that helped her to take hits.</p>
<p>It didn’t help.</p>
<p>She curled her right arm, tried to trap his left hand faster than he could withdraw after the hooks, but he didn’t plan on letting her get a chance to Overlap with his body. He swiftly drew his arm back out and piled on the pressure with fast, light combinations. She blocked them all. They were barely punches, he was hitting her guard, not trying to follow through, but they kicked back her arms as if he was punching full force, and between footwork and impacts the soles of her feet weren’t on the ground long enough at a time for her to Overlap with it./</p>
<p>How the hell had she given him this much energy to work with?</p>
<p>She tried to move in, letting the knockback of a blocked punch send her arms back, and she moved with it and span her forearms in a full 360 through her own upper arms to whirl them up under his guard and punch up at his chin. She socked him right in the chin with her right fist, her left narrowly missing. He flinched, she tried to follow up, hoping to keep in close, where her extended range of motion would be harder to deal with. He surprised her with a throw, the first he’d done in the whole spar, sending her tumbling.</p>
<p>She rolled to her feet fast, just in time for Tai to push her shoulder, one-handed. The light from his hair went out in an instant, and the last traces of the energy she’d given him swept back into her and hurled her head-over-heels, outside the edge of the mat as her aura broke.</p>
<p>She landed on her butt, gasping for breath, pushing down that familiar nausea of aura break. She was dimly aware that at least half the room was staring at their spar, even mid-fight, because how could you not stare at a someone who suddenly started glowing like the sun?</p>
<p>Tai rubbed at his chest where she’d kicked him. His sleeveless top was open at the front (of course it was, he was Tai), and there was a red mark right at his solar plexus where she’d kicked him, between and below the pair of visible scars, one on each of his pectorals. That kick was definitely going to leave a bruise.</p>
<p>“That really hurt,” he said, breathing still laboured.</p>
<p>She groaned in reply, her body still vibrating like a drum or a cymbal or something else that gets hit a lot. <em>Ow.</em></p>
<p>He offered her a hand, and she took it. He pulled her to her feet, then he gently squeezed her hand and suddenly the shaking rushed out through her hand like water, into him, his veins glowing amber in his wrist.</p>
<p>He raised his other hand and clicked his fingers with a flicker of gold sparks and a cracking sound that echoed through the room.</p>
<p>“Your semblance is bullshit,” she wheezed, leaning on him for support.</p>
<p>“Even more bullshit than yours,” he agreed. “You OK? I didn’t want to send back too much at once, I have to be careful about that.”</p>
<p>Summer brushed him off. “Your sister hits harder,” she teased, but she still couldn’t stand up straight.</p>
<p>“She definitely does,” he laughed, “I just cheat.”</p>
<p>Summer took a few deep breaths. “I heard a bit,” she panted, “about Yang’s semblance. Yours seems pretty similar.”</p>
<p>“Sort of,” he replied, supporting her under her shoulders to help her over to one of the benches lining the edge of the room, and passed her a water bottle. “I just store vibrations, then I can direct them into things and make them reverberate. The more I store up, the brighter I glow.”</p>
<p>“Thank god it doesn’t make you stronger too,” Summer moaned.</p>
<p>“The force still gets doubled,” he admitted.</p>
<p>“Fuck you,” she whined. He laughed again, sitting down heavily beside her, taking a long drink from a water bottle of his own.</p>
<p>He looked over at Kali as she dismantled one of their classmates, one of the ones whose names Summer had forgotten, who’d been off around Neo on that first day. Tai winced as she dropped him a little harder than necessary, not even needing her semblance. “Ouch,” he said, “but deserved.”</p>
<p>“How are people being?” Summer asked after a small sip of water. “Are Neo and Robyn doing OK? I don’t want to ask them directly cause I know it sucks to talk about other people’s nastiness.”</p>
<p>“Most people are fine,” Tai said. “The ones that weren’t at first have either gotten into line, shut up, or learned respect. If anyone really crossed a line Ozpin would throw them right out, so even the worst people are just ignorant and keep their distance.”</p>
<p>He gestured over towards the corner, where Neo was holding back someone’s hair as they leaned over a bucket. One of those other people whose names Summer hadn’t bothered to learn.</p>
<p>Tai shrugged. “Neo and Robyn are feeling comfortable,” he said. “How’s your team?”</p>
<p>Summer broke into a smile. “We’re starting to settle,” she said softly, as Raven started to walk over to them, a towel slung over one scarred shoulder. Summer waved her over and passed her bottle to Raven.</p>
<p>Raven took a drink from the bottle Summer had given her, and Summer tried not to think about how that was a kiss by proxy. <em>Not fair to Raven. Nope.</em> “Who won?” she asked, breathing hard, “I couldn’t watch, too busy with Oobleck. He moves almost as fast as he talks.”</p>
<p>“Tai won,” she replied.</p>
<p>“It was close,” he said.</p>
<p>“Nah.”</p>
<p>He glanced at her. “How close were you to overlapping with me,” he asked, “when I pushed you off?”</p>
<p>Summer shrugged. “About a second left,” she replied.</p>
<p>“And if you overlapped with me, I couldn’t have touched you, could I?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know,” she replied, “as far as my semblance is concerned, we’d be touching. We could just move through each other without physical resistance. If you punched me it’d go right through me. Some contact semblances can still affect me, some can’t. Can you can send it through your aura instead of through your skin itself?”</p>
<p>“I can,” he said.</p>
<p>“Then I’d lost the moment I gave you that much to work with,” Summer sighed. “Lesson learned.”</p>
<p>Raven looked between them. “What’s your semblance, Tai?” she asked casually.</p>
<p>“I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours,” he answered.</p>
<p>Raven shook her head. “I’m saving mine so I can win,” she smirked.</p>
<p>“Me too,” he chuckled. He nodded towards the mats. “Want to go for a round when you’ve got your breath back?”</p>
<p>Raven looked over at the clock. “I think Calavera wants to do something else after this first set of rounds,” she said, “but first chance we get, yes.”</p>
<p>“I’m rooting for you,” Summer promised her.</p>
<p>“So will you tell me his semblance?” Raven asked dryly.</p>
<p>“Nope,” Summer said, “I wanna see the look on your face when you find out.”</p>
<p>Her partner sighed.</p>
<p>After the last of the spars finished, Calavera had them all do exercises and drills, following her lead. She gave them time for their auras to recover, and then split the group into two.</p>
<p>Whereas before she’d paired up people at random, now she split the groups more specifically. The first group seemed to be the students who’d done better in the round of spars, including Summer; she broke them down into pairs again to spar one pair at a time using the whole arena instead of just a small area. The other group, she sent to the stands and told to watch closely. This time, the spars were recorded.</p>
<p>Summer’s round came halfway through the sequence. She squared off against Gretchen Rainart, who she hadn’t had a proper conversation with yet. She knew Gretchen fought with a polearm, but hadn’t seen her semblance before.</p>
<p>Like Tai, her semblance was not a good matchup for Summer either. She could make solid discs of light in her hands, and switched between gripping them to swing as weapons, and throwing them. Gretchen could stop them in mid-air, creating small walls or platforms to shield herself with, block Summer’s movement, and step or jump off them.</p>
<p>Summer didn’t get the chance to see if she could overlap with them, instead focussing on evasion and hand-to-hand, trying to rush Gretchen down. The discs weren’t sharp when Gretchen swung them, but Summer still tried to block her hands and wrists rather than the discs themselves. Once again, Summer had the stronger footwork, especially on the ground itself, and did her best to keep Gretchen grounded, not wanting to let her get out of reach.</p>
<p>Then Gretchen revealed the twist; she could make them and kick them with her feet too.</p>
<p>But Summer could evade in abnormal ways, and eventually she found Gretchen’s rhythm. She pushed in close when Gretchen was starting to kick one of the discs, and managed to catch her, throwing the taller fighter over her hip. She maintained contact on the way down, then quickly used Overlap with the floor to accelerate a knee to the side of Gretchen’s ribs. One more second later, and she could Overlap with Gretchen.</p>
<p>People looked at her overlapping with things and just assumed that you didn’t have a sense of touch during it. Summer did, but she didn’t feel what other people felt. She felt the textures of what she moved through, but not their shapes or structures. Soft, fibrous muscle; hard, smooth bone; the texture of clothing.</p>
<p>It was a good thing her opponents didn’t feel that. If they had, they’d have gone into shock. Ruby had told her how it felt when she was little – all they felt was a warm, fuzzy, even pressure. But that’s still not something you can feel within your body otherwise, it’s not something you can be prepared for. It was immediately disorienting, that what you could see matched up with what you felt, but didn’t make physical sense.</p>
<p>At Signal, where she’d been encouraged to use it on people in spars, she’d learnt a lot about how people reacted and adjusted. No-one was ever ready for how Overlap actually felt that first time.</p>
<p>Summer steeled herself, gritted her teeth, felt her stomach lurch, then she pressed her aura against Gretchen’s, and began.</p>
<p>She stuck one hand through one of Gretchen’s forearms and her opponent flinched in surprise, a shower of rose petals spilling from the contact. She ignored the texture of wet flesh and honeycomb-like bone, and let her fingertips interact again, so she could grip the far side of Gretchen’s forearm, preventing her from pulling free to break contact.</p>
<p>Then Summer capitalised on the initial shock and headbutted Gretchen in the face, their Aura shielding them both. The fact that it was a normal impact further surprised her opponent and gave Summer the chance to slip her other hand through Gretchen’s free arm, gripping it from the other side too.</p>
<p>Summer twisted, passing straight through Gretchen’s torso, grimacing from the feeling of slippery organs and individual ribs moving through her own lower body. She was careful to make sure their hearts didn’t overlap through each other, because the movement of another person’s heart inside her own freaked Summer out like nothing else; it was like having a heart attack.</p>
<p>Summer moved underneath her opponent’s back and stopped overlapping with Gretchen’s chest cavity, pushing herself back out as she released one arm and curled, bringing her legs up through Gretchen’s body as fast as she could to set up an armbar.</p>
<p>Gretchen’s now-free hand summoned a disc, swung at Summer, and passed right through her thigh to strike the mat below. At the contact points of the armbar, Summer wasn’t allowing them to overlap anymore. But with them still in contact, Summer could still leave the rest of her body able to overlap. Gretchen could have tried to strike at the point of contact, but she didn’t know that. Gretchen’s legs scrabbled for purchase on the mat for a moment before Summer completed the bar and it was over.</p>
<p>Rainart tapped out.</p>
<p>Summer released Gretchen’s arm and broke off contact quickly, her skin crawling as she got up. She offered a hand to help Gretchen to her feet.</p>
<p>Gretchen accepted but she was off-balance.</p>
<p>“I know how it feels,” Summer said kindly, giving a reassuring smile and hiding her own distress, same as always. She helped Gretchen towards the benches. “The surprise will pass. It’s just a new feeling, your body isn’t hurt. Sit down for a bit and drink plenty of water.”</p>
<p>Professor Calavera came over to check on her, but Gretchen was OK, just rattled.</p>
<p>“That’s a scary semblance,” Gretchen panted as Calavera examined her aura levels using her scroll, “is that how it feels when you do it?”</p>
<p>Summer shook her head. “Believe it or not, it feels worse for me, but we might end up sparring again in the future. If you want I could try to help you get more used to the feeling, if you think that would help it be less of a shock to you?”</p>
<p>Gretchen grimaced. “No thanks,” she said, “I don’t want to do that again, it’s disturbing.”</p>
<p>Summer was too used to hearing her semblance be called that. It shouldn’t bother her anymore. She didn’t let it show, because practice makes perfect when it comes to false faces.</p>
<p>Once Professor Calavera was satisfied Rainart was fine, she sent them both back to the stands and sent out the next pair. In the end, Raven had fought Oobleck again, and lost this time. She didn’t use her semblance – Oobleck had seemed more academic than combat focussed but he was very quick. Summer had begun to suspect that Raven couldn’t make portals as fast without her sword, like how Glynda’s crop allowed her to focus her semblance more precisely. The fact that Raven never used it against Oobleck made that guess look likely.</p>
<p>Once all the spars were over, Calavera sat the whole group down and played back specific moments from several of the recordings, critiquing their performance.</p>
<p>Eventually, she played back the beginning of Summer throwing Gretchen to the floor. The recording didn’t continue to the very end; it was just the throw that Calavera discussed, since that was what the students with less combat experience could learn from without her semblance. But Summer wasn’t really paying attention after she saw her own face the moment before Overlap activated.</p>
<p>She had never realised that she looked like she was about to cry when she overlapped with a person.</p>
<p>The thought stuck in her head for days afterwards, reverberating around.</p>
<p>
  <em>Creepy. Freak. Disgusting. Disturbing.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Ghost Girl</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Geist Girl</em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Lay Down</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Summer is totally fine. Definitely not reliving her trauma in anyway, nope, not at all.</p>
<p>As for Gretchen, this wouldn’t be a RWBY story if the weapons obeyed the laws of physics in any way. And yeah, I saw The Falcon and the Winter Soldier start airing and happened to rewatch some of Volume 7 again on the same day, and was like "hey, what if marrow's boomerang weapon but also cap's shield and a massive breach of Health and Safety Regulations?", and that's how Gretchen's fighting style came to be!</p>
<p>Also Raven has potted cacti because she’s prickly (and cute) on the outside but precious and soft on the inside.</p>
<p>Also also, it's looking like I'm going to split this by arc into multiple works. This first arc is looking to be 13-14 chapters long, and I'm already a few chapters into arc 2 in the writing. eeeeeeeee i'm excited!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <hr/>
<p>One, two, throw, the ringing crash of two bounces, then catch.</p>
<p>She missed the catch again.</p>
<p>Her axe passed her in a blur and bounced off the transparent entry wall of the training room, skimming across the floor away from her. The impact set off its catch and the axe handle extended from its compact state to its full polearm form, the metal shaft scraping over the ground fast enough to throw sparks.</p>
<p>Gretchen let her shield discs disintegrate and trudged after her weapon.</p>
<p>“You were so close to catching it that time,” her partner said.</p>
<p>Gretchen gave a huff. “Is that why you’re hiding?” she asked dryly.</p>
<p>The stone wall rising out of the floor in the corner was parted at head height by a small hole to look through. Terra Cotta peered out at her through the wall, giving her a playful squint. “You’re throwing a sharp weapon around at high speed. Yes, I’m behind a wall until you can catch it, and frankly I still think you should be using the blunt axe.”</p>
<p>“The training one has the wrong weight distribution,” Gretchen shrugged. “That’s fine in training, but if I get used to the wrong balance before I try something like this, I won’t be able to catch the real thing. I’ve been bouncing it off my discī to hit things for years, it’s catching it that’s the problem. I need to be able to throw it without disarming myself, so either I get this right or I can’t fully use my shields.”</p>
<p>“Or you end up catching it with your face, Gretchen.”</p>
<p>“Well, yeah…”</p>
<p>“Which would be way more dangerous since you're using the sharp one. You should go back to throwing slower again, that was more consistent.”</p>
<p>“Let me just tell Grimm to slow down and give me more time to set up then,” Gretchen rolled her eyes as she picked up her weapon and collapsed it back down to its shortened form. “Sometimes you’ve got to take a leap of faith.”</p>
<p>Terra smirked. “If it’s a leap of faith, maybe I should call Saphron.”</p>
<p>“You know she’d worry her head off if she saw me practise this.”</p>
<p>“That’s what normal people do when someone is trying to bounce a bladed weapon around a room <em>and then catch it with their bare hands</em> like some kind of magic trick.” Terra was giving her That Look again; the one that says ‘I’m right and you’re making a rubbish decision and should shut up.’ Gretchen didn’t like that look. She couldn’t argue with it.</p>
<p>“Ugh,” Gretchen groaned, “if you’re just going to complain about my practice, why are you in the room?”</p>
<p>“So I can stop it if it looks like it’s going to hit you.”</p>
<p>Gretchen startled. “You can react that fast?”</p>
<p>“It’s a lot easier to tell where it’s going from this angle. When it’s coming directly towards you it’d be harder to see its path clearly.”</p>
<p>Gretchen hummed.</p>
<p>Terra’s eyes narrowed. “Gretchen, don’t–”</p>
<p>Gretchen twisted, axe tucked in close to her body. She threw one shield from her free hand, one from each of her legs in two graceful whirling kicks, eyes tracking each in turn, stopping them at the correct distances and hoping she’d got the angles right because otherwise this would hurt like all fucking hell.</p>
<p>Health and Safety stuff was just guidelines and rules by people with desk jobs who couldn’t bounce an axe around a room if they tried, so Gretchen didn’t really worry about it.</p>
<p>Her right arm whipped around and she threw her axe as hard as she could, the staccato whooshing whir of its spin echoing throughout the chamber as it hurtled through the air.</p>
<p>With a sound like a metal drum, it bounced off the first, changing its trajectory, still spinning. It bounced off the second, then it bounced off the third, barely having slowed down due to the strange physics of her shield discī.</p>
<p>The spin of her axe, its momentum, and the angles of the discī weren’t perfect, but it worked well enough; the axe curved on its path back to her, and it really was easier to see now. The brighter blur of the axe head was more distinct from its metre long handle, and the fact that it wasn’t taking a direct path made it take slightly longer to return, giving her a fraction more time to think.</p>
<p>Gretchen ignored the instinct to make a shield to block it and hopped back quickly, reached out with her right hand, and caught her weapon in the middle of its handle as it passed her chest. She turned it over, passed it from hand to hand as she let her discī dissolve and looked to Terra, giving her partner a cocky grin.</p>
<p>“I caught it,” Gretchen said sweetly.</p>
<p>Terra was practically sweating. “That was extremely dangerous,” she said firmly.</p>
<p>“You didn’t block it though,” Gretchen pointed out.</p>
<p>“I nearly did,” Terra replied flatly, her voice steadily rising. “If you hadn’t stepped backwards then I’d have made a wall to stop it from hitting you in the face, and then proceeded to kick you from here to the surface of the fucking Moon, <em>you absolute jackass!”</em></p>
<p>“The more I practise, the safer this will get,” Gretchen grumbled.</p>
<p>“That’s why I haven’t dragged you in front of Calavera and had her scold you. If I did that you’d come back and practise on your own when no-one’s there to block it. Having a shielding semblance doesn’t mean you should be so reckless.”</p>
<p>Gretchen didn’t answer, because it was easier to just let Terra vent when she was this frustrated. Besides, if Terra really thought this was sure to go wrong, she’d have put her foot down and called their teammates. It wouldn’t be the first time.</p>
<p>“Then can you keep spotting for me until I get this right?” Gretchen asked.</p>
<p>Terra gave a tired sigh. “One of us on this damn team has to be a responsible adult.”</p>
<p>“Thank you.”</p>
<p>“Are you sure you’re OK though?”</p>
<p>Gretchen frowned at the abrupt change of subject. “You’re talking about that spar thing?”</p>
<p>“I'm not sure if you're trying to rush into learning this as a distraction. It looked pretty unsettling,” Terra said warily.</p>
<p>“It was,” Gretchen agreed. “Weird experience that I don’t want to repeat too often, but I was totally fine once the nausea wore off. Honestly, it seemed like she is more bothered by it than I am.”</p>
<p>Terra frowned. “Schnee’s still apologising?”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” she grimaced. “I don’t know what to say at this point. You know feelings-talk isn’t something I’m good at.”</p>
<p>“Definitely not,” Terra agreed.</p>
<p>Gretchen spun her axe from hand-to-hand. “Ready for me to try again?” she checked.</p>
<p>“Go for it,” Terra sighed. “Just please don’t give me a heart attack this time.”</p>
<p>The second time, she bounced it twice and caught it cleanly.</p>
<p>She didn’t tell Terra the next step of her plan. As soon as she could catch it consistently, Gretchen intended to practise throwing, bouncing, and catching it mid-air while jumping or stepping from discus to discus. It was definitely going to go terribly for the first few weeks of attempts.</p>
<p>It’d be funny to see her face when Gretchen got there.</p>
<p>And she knew that if she could nail <em>that,</em> it would really let Terra cut loose with her semblance.</p>
<p>She could hardly wait.</p><hr/>
<p>Glynda had been finding Professor Alistair’s classes on Aura to be particularly difficult so far, so Summer didn’t really pay attention when Glynda left with Raven and Robyn; they’d been helping her go over the work in the library from time to time.</p>
<p>People often went to study with each other, and Glynda insisted on GSBR finding time to study or spend time just in their pairs too. Raven and Summer usually ended up working for Professor Polendina’s engineering and mechanics classes in the labs, whereas Glynda and Kali usually worked in the library. But today, it was a Glynda-and-Raven day.</p>
<p>It was when Kali hopped down from her bunk and sat on the end of Summer’s bed that Summer realised it was a trap.</p>
<p>“Hi,” Summer said cheerily.</p>
<p>Kali gave her a look.</p>
<p>“Raven’s really worried about you,” Kali said quietly.</p>
<p>Summer swallowed.</p>
<p>“Glynda and I am too,” Kali said, “we don’t know what’s wrong.”</p>
<p>Summer ran a hand through her hair. “It shouldn’t be a big deal,” Summer protested, “I’m blowing this out of proportion.”</p>
<p>“We think it happened in Calavera’s class,” prompted Kali, “was it that spar with Tai?”</p>
<p>Summer shook her head, and crossed her arms to hug herself.</p>
<p>“Rainart?” Kali asked.</p>
<p>Summer nodded.</p>
<p>“Do we need to punch her?”</p>
<p>Summer snorted. “No,” she said quietly, “she didn’t mean to hurt me.”</p>
<p>“That doesn’t change that you’re hurting,” said Kali, “you haven’t smiled since.”</p>
<p>Summer started to reply on instinct, but Kali cut her off by saying, “Fake smiles don’t count, Summer.”</p>
<p>She grimaced. She’d thought she’d done better at hiding this. She took a deep breath.</p>
<p>“What do you need?” Kali asked softly. “If you want me to hug you, I can. If you want to scream into a pillow, I’ll hand you one. If you don’t want to talk about it, we can do something else, anything that helps. But you’ve isolated yourself for four days, and I’m not leaving you alone without knowing you’re going to be safe.”</p>
<p>Summer cracked. “Can you hold me?” she asked desperately.</p>
<p>Kali shuffled over, Summer turned and beckoned her up the bed. Kali sat up against Summer’s pillows and Summer curled up against her side. Her teammate wrapped Summer in her arms, and started to stroke her hair.</p>
<p>For a few minutes, Summer relaxed into it, until she felt ready to speak. “She said my semblance is ‘disturbing’. She’s right, but people used to say that a lot… it’s just pulling up old stuff.”</p>
<p>“Was this during the fight?” Kali asked.</p>
<p>“No, after the end. Getting overlapped with for the first time is a huge shock. It scares people.”</p>
<p>Kali kept soothing her. “And you don’t like doing it?”</p>
<p>“Not on people. Objects are easy, my own body is easy; these days using it like that is fun, I can do things I’d never imagined five years ago. But I hate overlapping with people… It’s <em>wrong.”</em></p>
<p>Kali’s hand stilled. “I don’t quite understand,” she said gently. “What’s wrong about it?”</p>
<p>Summer shifted. “It’s invasive,” she answered, “it scares them, it violates their privacy.”</p>
<p>Kali’s hand began to move again. “Because you can feel them?”</p>
<p>Summer nodded. “Kind of. I feel the texture of what I’m moving though. With objects it’s useful so I know what I’m inside when I can’t see. But with people, it’s invasive. If someone had something metal in their chest then I’d feel there was metal present when I moved through, and where it was, but not what it was. If I overlap with someone I can feel things they might not want me to know about.”</p>
<p>Kali took a slow breath. “At the risk of saying something wrong,” Kali said carefully, “isn’t that true of sparring in general?”</p>
<p>Summer paused.</p>
<p>“If I hit someone in the chest who is binding,” Kali continued, “then I’d know something about them that’s private. If all you feel is texture, if you overlapped with them, would you know they were binding?”
</p>
<p>“No,” Summer frowned. “I’d know I was overlapping muscle, bone, fat, organs, and skin, and that they were wearing clothes, but not what any of those things are. I can’t tell the difference between organs besides a heart because of the movement; I don’t want to learn how to tell things apart, and I couldn’t test it on myself to learn that. If I overlap with myself, I feel nothing, it just feels like I move normally through air.”</p>
<p>“OK,” Kali said, “Then I might be wrong, but I don’t see how your semblance is more ‘wrong’ than other kinds of physical contact. When we touch someone, we all run the risk of finding out things about each other that are personal, and those are things that we never bring up. You wouldn’t out someone if you learned something about their body in a spar, would you?”
</p>
<p>“Never,” Summer said.</p>
<p>“You’d never deliberately use your semblance to violate someone’s privacy?”
</p>
<p>“Of course not.”</p>
<p>“If someone asked you not to overlap with them, would you do it anyway?”</p>
<p>
  <em>“Never.”</em>
</p>
<p>“Then I don’t think you’re using your semblance in an invasive way,” said Kali. “I don’t think you’re using it in a way that’s ‘wrong’. You used your semblance in a fight, you kept it to the minimum, and ended things as fast as you could. And don’t try to say you didn’t, because I watched that spar; you started rushing the moment you overlapped with her, like you couldn’t end it fast enough… You looked like you were in pain.”</p>
<p>Summer swallowed but her mouth was dry. “It doesn’t hurt,” she muttered, “but even after training it so much at Signal it still disgusts me. It’s visceral in the worst way.”</p>
<p>“Is that what it’s like for them too?” Kali asked.</p>
<p>“If it was I’d never do it again. No-one should feel like that. For them it’s different,” Summer said, “they don’t feel texture.”</p>
<p>“…What do they feel?”</p>
<p>Summer sighed. “Ruby told me it feels warm and fuzzy,” she replied, “and there’s pressure. Weiss said it tickles as well.”</p>
<p>Kali looked down at her, frowning. “It sounds like this is <em>much</em> worse for you than it is for the other person.”</p>
<p>“But they’re not ready,” Summer protested, “they’ve never felt something like that before. They’ve never felt something move through them. It’s terrifying. That’s why Gretchen was so shaken.”</p>
<p>Kali hesitated before continuing. “What did you say to her afterwards?”</p>
<p>“Same thing as always,” Summer replied, “that I was sorry, and I know how it feels, that sitting down and drinking water helps. And if she wanted, I could help her to get used to the feeling.”</p>
<p>Kali stiffened. “You offered to help her adjust to it so that it would be less of a shock for future spars?” she asked, her voice suddenly edged.</p>
<p>“Sometimes at Signal people got me to practice with them so it stopped being distressing for them,” Summer explained, “so, now I offer that if I overlap with someone in a spar.”</p>
<p>Kali’s eyes narrowed and her ears flicked. “You offer to do something that you just told me you <em>hate</em> doing. Something that feels horrible every time for you but a brief shock for them that they can adjust to after a few times. It distresses you so much that you’ve been shaken for four days while Rainart seemed to be fine within minutes,” she said, her voice almost angry. “All that just to make it stop being uncomfortable for <em>them?”</em></p>
<p>“I–”</p>
<p>“You don’t deserve to do something that hurts you,” Kali continued firmly. “How your own semblance feels for you is not less important than how it feels for them.”</p>
<p>“They didn’t choose it,” Summer insisted, “I chose to overlap them, it’s <em>my</em> semblance.”</p>
<p>Kali’s anger dissipated suddenly and she suddenly looked sad. “You didn’t choose your semblance,” she said seriously.</p>
<p>“I know,” Summer said, her voice rising and starting to shake, “but if our Semblances are a reflection of who we are, then what does it say about me that I can <em>invade people’s bodies like a fucking Geist!”</em></p>
<p>Summer pulled away from her, she stood up off the bed, started to pace the room, breathing hard. Kali watched her.</p>
<p>“Whoever said that to you,” Kali said quietly, “is a truly <em>horrible</em> person.”</p>
<p>Summer sighed. “Then that’s half the people my age in Patch.”</p>
<p>Kali took a sharp breath. “How old were you?”</p>
<p>Summer looked away. “Seven,” she replied, “I’d only just found my semblance and couldn’t control it. Raven knows about some of this; we talked.</p>
<p>“Long story short, they were terrified. They said I was like a Geist, crawling into objects. After a while some of them began to think I really was one – a Grimm hiding inside a child. Then I started to think it. My parents pulled me out of school. I was home-schooled from then until Signal, and then all any of the people at Signal could talk about was how weird and powerful and sickening and amazing my semblance was! How important it was for me to make the most of it by moving through my opponent.”</p>
<p>“On the first day here,” Kali asked, “when you showed your semblance, did Qrow’s response bother you?”</p>
<p>“No,” she said, with a dismissive wave of her hand, “I wanted to gross him out a little, that’s why I moved like that. My semblance can look funny and no-one made a big deal over it, honestly it can be useful as a filter of who’s safe and who isn’t. Signal was different. All anyone ever talked to me about was Overlap and how I needed to use it. I was a semblance to them, not a person.”</p>
<p>“I’m glad we didn’t hurt you,” Kali said, “but no-one should tell you how to use it, or dehumanise you like that. You don’t have to force yourself to overlap with people. Not to fight, and not to help them adjust.”</p>
<p>“If I don’t, how can I win?” Summer replied desperately. “What kind of Hunter doesn’t use their semblance?”</p>
<p>Kali held up her hands. “I’m not saying that you should never use your semblance. I’m saying that if you don’t want to use it on another person, you don’t have to. You don’t <em>need</em> to do that to win.”</p>
<p>Summer didn’t have an answer to that.</p>
<p>Kali checked off each of her ten fingers. “Your technique is solid, you’re well trained, you’re fast, you’re experienced, you can fight well either unarmed or with your weapon, you’re immune to any kind of hold or joint lock because you can move through yourself, all your joints have an unrestricted range of motion, you can move through any inanimate thing you touch after a delay, you almost beat Tai unarmed without even overlapping him, and to top it off you’re still improving at everything.</p>
<p>“Not to mention that you don’t have to win alone because you have me, Glynda, and Raven as your teammates. We help each other win fights we never could by ourselves.</p>
<p>“Summer,” Kali continued. “You took my breath away when I saw you spar with Tai. I don’t think you realise how hard you are to fight. If Tai couldn’t ring you out, his only way to win would have been an aura break, because no kind of pin or hold even slightly restricts you. Fighting you works differently to fighting anyone else, especially in close-quarters.”</p>
<p>Summer stopped pacing. She wanted to say something against that. She couldn’t be good enough without doing it.</p>
<p>“Just now,” Kali said, her voice softening, “you said that if other people felt the way you do when you overlapped with them, you’d never do it again. That no-one should feel it. When did you start feeling that doesn’t apply to you? Was it at Signal?”</p>
<p>“…Yeah.”</p>
<p>“Did you tell them how awful it feels for you?”</p>
<p>Summer sighed. “No.”</p>
<p>“And on top of their ignorance, it’s not their semblance anyway,” Kali finished, “they had no right. No fucking right at all.”</p>
<p>Summer sat back on the end of her bed, where Kali had been before.</p>
<p>“What if Professor Calavera tells me I need to do it?” she asked, “It’s her job to make us get better at combat and using our semblances.”</p>
<p>“I’ll punch her,” Kali said hotly.</p>
<p>“Kali!”</p>
<p>“I’m serious,” said Kali, “I don’t care if Ozpin tells you to use it like that, I don’t care if The Grimm Reaper tells you to use it like that. After what you’ve just said to me, if anyone forces you to use it like that then I’ll fight them. We’re a team, we protect our own.”</p>
<p>Summer half-laughed, half-cried, “You can’t just punch Professor Ozpin!”</p>
<p>Kali rolled her eyes. “I’m a Xiao-Long – solving problems by punching them is a family tradition. Besides, if this hypothetical situation happened, I’d have to get in line behind Raven. She’d be even angrier than me.”</p>
<p>Summer laughed. “I dunno,” she mumbled, “she doesn’t seem protective to me.”</p>
<p>Kali’s face fell. “Then why is she covered in scars from Grimm and weapons, but Qrow isn’t?” she asked sadly.</p>
<p>Summer froze.</p>
<p>“Oh,” she said.</p>
<p>Even after what Raven had told her, she hadn’t thought of that.</p>
<p>Kali shook her head. “Back to your semblance,” she said, “do you understand what I’m saying?”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Summer said. “It makes sense. I need to think, but… I feel like you’re right… It would be a relief,” she admitted, “to never feel it again.”</p>
<p>Kali shifted over to her and hugged her from behind.</p>
<p>“What you said earlier,” Kali breathed, “about the Grimm thing. You’ve seen my semblance; black smoke, blurry shadows, red eyes. People used to say things like that about me too.”</p>
<p>Summer sighed and leaned back against her teammate. “Maybe Ozpin was right when they said people find teams who are similar to themselves.”</p>
<p>Kali hummed.</p>
<p>“Thanks for this,” Summer said quietly.</p>
<p>“It’s part of being a team,” Kali replied.</p>
<p>Summer reached up and laced her fingers with one of Kali’s hands where it rested off her shoulder.</p>
<p>“I’m still going to thank you for it,” she answered.</p>
<p>They stayed like that for a while, before Kali shifted a little.</p>
<p>“Glynda and Raven will be back in a bit,” Kali said, glancing over at the beautiful carriage clock Glynda had on the windowsill next to Raven’s little potted cacti. “Would you want to talk about this with them too?”</p>
<p>Summer sighed. “I’m a bit burnt out,” she replied tiredly, “I’d rather do something fun instead.”</p>
<p>“Indoor or outdoor?”</p>
<p>“In Vale, maybe?” Summer suggested.</p>
<p>Kali hummed thoughtfully. “There’s that minigolf course near the gardens.”</p>
<p>“The novelty one with the big mushrooms?”</p>
<p>“We’ll have to ban Glynda from using her semblance though,” Kali chuckled.</p>
<p>“You really think she’d cheat?”</p>
<p>“Not at first, but she’s competitive and would give in to the temptation so that she could be smug about winning.”</p>
<p>Summer giggled. “Actually yeah, she would.”</p>
<p>“Sounds good?” Kali asked.</p>
<p>Summer nodded, smiling. “Sounds good,” she replied, leaning her head back against Kali’s chest to look up at her.</p>
<p>Kali’s expression softened. “You’re smiling again,” she said quietly. Looking up at Kali’s kind lavender eyes, wrapped in her gentle arms, Summer’s heart flipped and her cheeks heated as she suddenly became aware of how close they were, of Kali’s soft chest against the back of her head, of her thighs resting outside Summer’s.</p>
<p>How Kali could hold her like this in a completely different context. How she would, if Summer asked.</p>
<p>How, after that talk in the second week, she knew that Kali was waiting for her to ask...</p>
<p>Summer gave a little over-casual shrug, glancing away and shuffling out of Kali’s arms so she could stand up. She didn’t want to screw things up. Kali wasn’t being flirty because it wouldn’t have been an appropriate moment for that; it was a moment of platonic affection, and Summer didn’t want to spoil it.</p>
<p>She stretched her arms and yawned exaggeratedly. “I’ll get changed,” she said, “I can’t go into town dressed so casually, I don’t look nearly cool enough.”</p>
<p>Kali let her go without comment.</p>
<p>By the time the others arrived, Summer felt calmer than she had in days. She could smile again, she didn’t feel fake, her heart was so much lighter. Glynda and Raven had been happy to join them for minigolf, though Kali and Raven did end up waiting several minutes while Glynda and Summer did their makeup in the bathroom.</p>
<p>Summer’s hands were still a little jittery with stress, and she messed up her left eye’s eyeliner twice before Glynda huffed in mild annoyance, gently took the liquid liner from Summer’s hands, and did it herself.</p>
<p>Glynda wasn’t trying to be intimate. She was just trying to help, and her movement was neutral and detached.</p>
<p>But she was Glynda, and she was gorgeous, and Summer was still a little flustered from earlier and had already started to crush on Glynda by the second week of term. She tried not to think about the way Glynda tilted her chin for a better angle, how much taller Glynda was, how her green eyes focussed in concentration through her glasses as she did Summer’s make-up.</p>
<p>Glynda slightly adjusted Summer’s other wing too until it met her exacting standards, while Summer kept her hands clasped way too tightly and breathed shallowly.</p>
<p>Finally, Glynda clicked the lid back onto Summer’s eyeliner and set it down on the shelf. She gave Summer’s make-up one last check-over, before saying, “Perfect. Would you like me to apply your lip tint for you?”</p>
<p>Summer’s head spun. “I, uh…” she mumbled, “Yes. Yes please.”</p>
<p>Glynda turned to pick out Summer’s lip liner and tint, and her own lip brushes and primer (which were much better than Summer’s ones). “I wasn’t trying to fluster you with the eyeliner,” Glynda said calmly as she moved, “it’s been a few weeks since we talked about that, even though you said ‘yes’ then. 
</p>
<p>“I don’t need to do your lips. If you think it would fluster you and you don’t want that, then I won’t do it. Or, I can do it as neutrally and professionally as you want. Are you comfortable?”</p>
<p>Summer felt a surge of adrenaline. “I’m enjoying this,” she replied quietly, “let’s see where it goes.”</p>
<p>Glynda nodded and picked up her lip primer. “I’ll stop if you tell me to, or if you seem uncomfortable. And I’m just doing your make-up, that’s all, nothing more. Are you certain about this?”</p>
<p>Summer’s heart accelerated. “Yes.”</p>
<p>“Do you want me to take the lead?” Glynda asked, her voice dipping ever so subtly.</p>
<p>“Yes,” Summer replied softer.</p>
<p>Glynda set to work, not being too intimate about it. She didn’t linger, she moved neatly and   accurately as Summer started to relax into it, her nervousness receding. The tint was a red that matched the dye in the tips of Summer’s otherwise-black hair, a bold berry red. Glynda didn’t rush, but she didn’t draw it out the way Summer had half-hoped she would.</p>
<p>As Glynda finished up, Summer saw the cracks in her team leader’s usual mask of calm. The way her eyes lingered on Summer’s lips, how her breathing had changed, her cheeks colouring ever so slightly, a tiny tremble in Glynda’s hand that held the bottle even though her hand with the brush was perfectly steady. Summer started to zone out, and didn’t realise when Glynda had finished until her teammate turned and set down what she was holding.</p>
<p>Summer let out a shaky breath.</p>
<p>Glynda turned back to her, and Summer felt an urge to do something very reckless indeed.</p>
<p>“Don’t rush,” Glynda said quietly, touching her shoulder with one soft hand. “One thing at a time. We don’t want to do something that we regret.”</p>
<p>Summer swallowed.</p>
<p>“Besides,” Glynda said, her voice the slightest bit hoarse as she brushed Summer’s cheek with her thumb, “it’d be a shame to smudge your lips after all that effort.”</p>
<p>Summer laughed a little. “I think they’d be annoyed if they had to wait for us to redo it,” she agreed.</p>
<p>Glynda closed her eyes for a moment, took a short, heavy breath, and when they opened she was her usual calm, controlled self.</p>
<p>“Ready to go?” Glynda asked.</p>
<p>“Let’s go,” Summer agreed.</p>
<p>They emerged from the bathroom, but Summer was still fuzzy and warm inside.</p>
<p>Raven looked at her curiously. “That’s a lot of blush, isn’t it?” she asked.</p>
<p>Kali giggled. “Raven, she’s not wearing any.”</p>
<p>Raven’s eyes widened as she looked from Glynda, to Summer, to Glynda.</p>
<p>“It was all perfectly innocent,” Glynda smiled, “I promise.”</p>
<p>“S-shut up,” Summer mumbled, “it’s minigolf time.”</p>
<p>Glynda won, of course. She did promise not to use her semblance, but she still won easily. Kali came last, she kept getting excited and hitting the ball way too hard. Raven and Summer bickered and went back and forth for second place, and in the end Summer narrowly came third. Raven shouted “Yes!”, lost in her satisfaction, before she paused and looked around self-consciously at the startled family of four a few holes behind, as Kali stifled her own laughter.</p>
<p>They headed towards the docks afterwards, but stopped along the way at a café to get milkshakes. Summer drank as carefully as she could through her straw, trying not to spoil her lips. They chatted about nothing important, Kali pestered Glynda to do make-up for her too sometime, and what had been spinning through Summer’s head over the previous few days steadily faded back.</p>
<p>Her teammates didn’t see her as just a semblance. They’d seen her use it and weren’t disturbed. Kali had even made a habit of picking up Summer’s petals from her clumsiness in the mornings, playfully scattering them like confetti before they dissipated.</p>
<p>She’d known they wouldn’t have judged her. She’d kept quiet out of habit, because that’s how things had been at Signal, because saying it aloud meant acknowledging how much it hurt. It made it real. It meant admitting something she’d been told was just weakness.</p>
<p>Summer watched Glynda and Kali braid daisies into Raven’s hair while they sat together on a grassy ridge that overlooked the docks. Above the sea, twilight was approaching, the sky turning peachy as the Sun neared the horizon. Raven’s eyes, once scary to her, were gentle and her cheeks dimpled as she laughed.</p>
<p>Kali put an arm round Summer’s shoulders not long after, asking quietly if she was OK.</p>
<p>Summer smiled and leaned her head on Kali’s shoulder.</p>
<p>She was.</p>
<p>She really was.</p>
<p>They stayed out to watch the sun set before they went back to Beacon. Glynda and Summer cleaned off their make-up shoulder-to-shoulder, Summer reluctant to lose the lipstick.</p>
<p>And when Summer lay down to sleep – Raven already out like a light in her bed across the room, Glynda reading in her bed by the light of her scroll, Kali playing Solitas Solitaire on the floor – she made up her mind.</p>
<p>She was never going to overlap with a person again.</p>
<p>She’d win without it, because if anyone could help make that possible, it was the three people in that dorm with her.</p>
<p>“Goodnight girls,” she said quietly, her eyes wet.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. A Ghost of Days Gone By</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>This chapter was mostly very fun to write! Lots of characterisation for characters who will play more of a role in several chapters’ time, but who need to be established ahead of that. We’ve got some sad things, but we’ve got a pure injection of cute fluffy stuff and comfort to wrap it up!</p><p>That said, this chapter contains some ableism. The character in question apologises for their behaviour. See the notes for specifics.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW ableism against nonspeaking people.<br/>It’s not uncommon for someone to walk away from a conversation/refuse to listen to someone when they’re angry, but to do that to a person who has a disability that affects/is disabled in a way that affects their communication is not acceptable. Looking and walking away from Neo when she is signing to you is not like ignoring a speaking person you’re annoyed with; it’s inextricable from the nature and impact of ableist discrimination and the denial of her communication that she as a nonspeaking person will have faced from society, which doesn’t happen to speaking people.<br/>I am not nonspeaking, but I’m autistic and I really don’t like speaking, and often find it difficult or impossible to speak. I can force myself to speak but it suuuuuucks which is why I love writing; writing is easy and doesn’t feel like squeezing my brain through a funnel. If a nonspeaking person reading this takes issue with my portrayal of Neo, I will gladly make requested changes, I want her portrayal to be respectful. &lt;3<br/>Qrow does something he’d do if a speaking person made him feel frustrated and pressured, without considering how different that is for Neo, and when she calls him out he apologises and makes amends. I feel like it makes sense for the characters as I’ve written them, and Qrow (like Raven) does NOT have healthy coping mechanisms for stuff at this stage in his life. Raven’s a main character and Qrow is a side character, but both the little birdies are going to learn to do self-care and not lash out; in this story, Raven directs her anger at herself, Qrow vents it at others and that kind of behaviour causes harm, as it does in this chapter.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <hr/><p>Maria Calavera was annoyed with Ozpin.</p><p>Honestly, that was pretty standard for a Thursday. It was true of the past twenty-odd years in general, but particularly so for Thursday mornings. That was the one time she had no classes or commitments, and they were able to have their weekly meeting.</p><p>The meetings were an hour or so of talking about generally important day-to-day goings-on: the students, local news, regional Hunter work, that sort of thing. After that, Maria would lose her temper because of how Ozpin refused to answer the questions the conversation inevitably turned to. At first it hadn’t bothered her too much, but it was steadily becoming more and more frustrating and cyclical.</p><p>“I’m sick of you giving me the run around,” she said sharply, cutting off Ozpin’s deflections. “Oz, what are your plans about Amber?”</p><p>And they said what they said every week, with that painfully familiar tone.</p><p>“We need to bide our time.”</p><p>
  <em>How many times could two people have the same conversation?</em>
</p><p>If this wasn’t Ozpin Top Secret bullshit, Maria might’ve applied for an official world record.</p><p>“But for what? What exactly are you waiting for?” she asked firmly. “For Salem to send her assassins to finish the job? By now they must have figured out that Amber’s still at Beacon. I’ve already told you that Grimm attacks in Vale are rising in number and you’re not even reacting to that. A month ago you said we should wait and see; well, we’ve waited, and the frequency of attacks is still rising. She’s using Grimm to scout, poking for holes. We need to call Atlas, Ozpin.“</p><p>“We cannot call Atlas,” Ozpin replied. “We already know that our communication with them is compromised.”</p><p>“Then don’t say anything specific. We don’t have the resources to defend Beacon if Salem makes her move.”</p><p>“She will not attack Beacon yet.”</p><p>“But you won’t tell me how you know that, will you?” she asked, pinching the bridge of her nose.</p><p>Ozpin let out a slow breath.</p><p>“No,” they said quietly, “I will not.”</p><p>She sat heavily back in the chair across from Oz. “Did you tell Amber?”</p><p>Ozpin didn’t meet her eyes.</p><p>“I did not,” came the reply.</p><p>“Ozpin,” she said tiredly, “what’s the point of an inner circle if you don’t trust us?”</p><p>Their eyes hardened. “Trust?” they echoed. “This is not about trust.”</p><p>Maria’s pressed her lips together. “Then why won’t you tell me?”</p><p>“Because you don’t make the decision about what happens to Amber,” Ozpin said. “The power of a Maiden isn’t something to throw at a woman unequipped to wield it – I’ve seen the consequences of that mistake. We must choose carefully, and we need time for the successor to master it. Salem will be taking her time to prepare Amber’s assailant and perfect what power she already has, rather than risk losing such a useful weapon.”</p><p>“Then put me in that chamber,” Maria responded, arms crossed. “We’ve lost three months to waiting, and as far as Penny, CFVY, or I know you don’t even have a candidate in mind. We’re falling behind while Salem prepares her Maiden.”</p><p>Ozpin stood, turned, and paced closer towards their large window that overlooked Beacon. “We cannot afford to risk losing you or Penny,” Ozpin said tightly. “With Amber incapacitated, I dare not risk the other Maidens – that’s why I’ve sent them into hiding. If another is attacked or has power stolen from them, then Remnant will be in the worst danger it has faced in centuries.</p><p>“Salem has a Maiden now; a half-Maiden, perhaps, but a Maiden nonetheless, and we <em>know</em> that there were multiple attackers. For a small group to come within a glimpse of killing a Maiden… You have never seen a Maiden’s power, Maria, you are underestimating the threat. If they isolated another, or any of our inner circle, they could pick us off one-by-one.”</p><p>Ozpin turned back to face her, and Maria stiffened in her seat. Those times when the gold flecks in Ozpin’s irises seemed glow took her by surprise nowadays. It had become so infrequent, but it was a reminder of the distance that now existed between the two of them.</p><p>“If you die,” not-Ozpin said, “Remnant loses one of its strongest Hunters, and the only active Hunter with Silver Eyes; one of the people most able to defend Amber until we find a successor, especially since Ruby Rose has retired and–”</p><p>“That’s not an excuse,” Maria snapped. “If we called Ruby and told them what happened to Amber, they would un-retire in a heartbeat and so would Weiss. Why are you still keeping them in the dark, anyway? Is it because they’ll kick your ass for lying to them this long? The boundary was that their little girl gets kept at arm’s length from all your <em>bullshit</em> until she’s ready to protect herself from the people who hunt Active Silver Eyes. It was never anything to do with things like this.</p><p>”Ruby would have no issue coming here to protect people, you know that, it’s exactly the kind of reason they left the door open to you. Which part of ‘we will help if you need us’ do you not understand? Why am I even listening to you about this anymore?! I should tell them! I should have already told them!”</p><p>“Maria,” they replied flatly, “RWBY have been through enough and built lives of their own; do <em>not</em> drag them back into this war. That is not up for discussion, not unless there is truly no-one else to call upon. Back to the topic at hand, we still have no idea if the machine would kill whoever stepped inside it. If Amber dies in it, the power could go to her assailant. If you or Penny die in it, I lose one of the only people that I can fully trust.”</p><p>Maria sighed heavily. There were days when the sound of Ozpin’s stolen voice made their words so much worse. Ozpin was a person who would say “I trust you” while hiding the truth and lying to your face because they thought it was easier. There were days when Maria wanted to say something she’d regret.</p><p>“I am going to have to decide who goes into that chamber,” the person with Ozpin’s face continued, “and I will not make a rash decision. Salem will bide her time, as she always has, and look for a more decisive opportunity to split the Kingdom. She has no reason to act in haste and will not throw away her subordinates for so little gain. She would rather we find a successor to Amber than allow us to retrieve the stolen half of Amber’s strength.</p><p>“This war will not end with this battle,” they concluded. “We are playing a game longer than our own lives.”</p><p>Maria ground her teeth and she finally snapped. “Longer than <em>my</em> life,” she snarled coldly, and Ozpin stiffened.</p><p>For a few moments, the room was silent save for the ticking of the clockwork in the floor and ceiling.</p><p>She already regretted saying it.</p><p>“You are not going into that chamber,” Ozpin repeated. Their voice would have appeared calm to most people, but she knew them far too well.</p><p>“You mean that you’ll put someone expendable into it instead,” Maria accused.</p><p>“Yes,” said Ozpin evenly, setting down their mug with calculated restraint, their knuckles white. “But they will make an informed decision. If we must risk a life, it should not be someone we cannot afford to lose. A war for survival does not entail easy choices. It never has.”</p><p>Maria crossed one leg over the other, settling back into her chair, trying to physically relax, taking a deep breath and hoping it would defuse some of the tension in the room because she really didn’t want the two of them to come to blows again.</p><p>“Fine,” she said quietly, “I won’t ask again unless there is no other option. I won’t tell Ruby. But there are some questions I am not leaving this office until you answer. You’ve evaded them long enough.”</p><p>Ozpin’s eyes narrowed behind their pince-nez.</p><p>She started with a question she already knew the answer to. “Are you planning to involve their daughter?”</p><p>“No,” they answered. “I will honour my word.”</p><p>Hopefully they would be a little more receptive to her real questions now. “Do you already have potential successors to Amber in mind, even if you will not name them to me?” Maria asked.</p><p>“No,” Ozpin said guardedly, “I am still looking.”</p><p>Maria nodded. That had been easier to pry from Oz than she’d expected. What she didn’t like was that it could mean Oz was considering a student; someone she felt was far too young to face such a choice. That was a question they’d definitely lie about if she asked.</p><p>The average hunter didn’t make it to old age, but she didn’t want to risk the next generation for this. They weren’t ready. Her own twenties had blazed by, back when Ozpin and the previous Head of Beacon had been two separate people. Beacon’s principal had never been close to her, but Ozpin had been a mentor.</p><p>It was a strange thing to look into the eyes of a peer, a friend, and see someone else. Someone not quite the same anymore. Older. Tired.</p><p>Afraid.</p><p>To see less and less of your friend with every week that passed. To grieve them while they were, in the eyes of the world, still alive.</p><p>The old Ozpin had gotten on her nerves constantly before the merge, much the same as they did now, but the day they faded away had come far too soon.</p><p>She would never say it to their face, but she missed her Oz. Professor Ozpin, Head of Beacon Academy, was so familiar and alien that it still hurt, almost ten years after they had come to Maria with lonely, lonely eyes and asked for the cane. “My cane,” they’d said.</p><p>Until that moment some part of her had held out hope that the old Head, Osbourne, had just been missing. The whole of Remnant had held its breath after Osbourne’s disappearance, but Remnant would never know that, in a way, Osbourne had survived. Remnant would never know that, in a way, Ozpin had died, how that moment had stolen away her friend.</p><p>Oz was older than her; Ozpin’s soul would outlive her. Oz was gone forever; Ozpin’s body was standing in front of her.</p><p>
  <em>How can we pull a student, someone only beginning to become an adult, into this?</em>
</p><p>She hadn’t been ready for this when she was years older than her pupils were now. She was forty-three now and that wasn’t even old yet, she planned on living at least twice that long. With any luck, she hoped, Ozpin would answer all her questions before she was an octogenarian. She wasn’t counting on it.</p><p>Maria stirred. “Will you reconsider calling Atlas?” she asked.</p><p>Ozpin sighed. “As you wish,” they replied. “But I suspect bringing a fleet to Vale would cause more uncertainty and fear than not. Headmistress Cordovin does not have a light touch.”</p><p><em>It’s a start,</em> she thought to herself. <em>And no, she doesn’t, but Oz didn’t mean that in a dirty way, Maria, you scoundrel!</em></p><p>“Can we respond more strongly to the Grimm attacks?” she asked, trying not to smirk about Ozpin’s slip-up. “Not just me or Penny alone, but local hunters, student groups on training missions, the teachers we have here. We’ve let this get worse than we should have.”</p><p>“Perhaps we have,” Ozpin replied, and returned to their chair. “As long as we do not leave Beacon vulnerable...”</p><p>“I’ll draw up some supervised missions for the second and third years,” Maria said, “they could use the experience and the attacks aren’t severe enough to put them at significant risk. It’s just the frequency that concerns me. But if we’re still short on hands next term, we can consider training missions for the first years.”</p><p>“Alright,” Ozpin replied. “But I’m not sure if all of the first years would be ready even then. Who did you have in mind?”</p><p>“TRQS,” Maria replied, “or <acronym>RSST</acronym> would be my first choices. They’re both capable, and stable.” Ozpin nodded in agreement. “Perhaps GSBR,” Maria suggested, “but that depends on the rest of this term – two of them are holding the team back.”</p><p>Ozpin raised an eyebrow.</p><p>“Schnee and Branwen,” Maria clarified. “Miss Branwen isn’t using her semblance on the others; I don’t know if she can, but that was something I expected when we saw the recordings on the first day. Miss Schnee seems to have decided not to use her semblance with other people anymore.”</p><p>“Yes,” Ozpin said, their voice back to normal by now. “When she applied here, Signal sent a recording of her qualification exam as support for the application. I was concerned that might be a problem.”</p><p>Maria sighed. “It might be a naïve decision on her part,” she continued, “but she’s Ruby’s daughter so that doesn’t surprise me. And it’s better that this happens in her first semester than later. I’m adjusting her in-class training to account for it. She has been struggling in every spar I’ve seen since, but I know that she does a lot of training outside of classes; GSBR and TRQS have booked the combat rooms more often than any other teams. She could improve quite a lot this term, training with them. But even if GSBR are ready next term, I wouldn’t want to let them out of my sight on a mission. As for the remaining first year teams, I think they all need even more time, or are less combat-oriented.”</p><p>“If you go out there to supervise, be careful,” said Ozpin, “Salem does not know about your Eyes, but her attention is focussed on Vale; I would prefer to keep your power close to our chest for now.”</p><p>Ozpin’s tone was a little different all of a sudden. They didn’t speak in their usual quiet, odd, patient way. There was a little glimmer of a familiar sharpness to it, dulled under the usual misery that only Maria seemed to notice.</p><p>A little bit of <em>her</em> Oz, still in there along with all the others.</p><p>“I will,” Maria replied, pretending that she wasn’t hurt by it.</p>
<hr/><p>By now Qrow had realised that he had a problem.</p><p>Well, that wasn’t quite right; he had two.</p><p>The first was the handsome six-foot-something blond himbo with a heart as golden as his eyes and a grin that made Qrow’s knees weak.</p><p>And the second was the snarky four-foot-something snack-thieving pastel-gremlin who knew about the first problem.</p><p>Tai, being Tai, was as oblivious as could be, and in Raven’s words, Neo was ‘more annoying than Summer in a sugar rush’. When Raven had said that, Neo had signed <em>“Glad you think I’m so sweet!”</em> and blown her a kiss.</p><p>He wasn’t entirely sure if Neo had been flirting, but considering that she flirted with most of the women he’d seen her meet except Robyn, it wouldn’t exactly be a surprise. Raven had just given her one of her Glares in reply, and Neo hadn’t turned on the charm since.</p><p>Maybe he could have asked Neo for advice about getting Tai to catch on, if she hadn’t clearly made up her mind to tease him lightly at every opportunity. Now that his signing was actually getting good enough for casual conversation, the gloves were off when it came to mockery, and she’d started signing puns with him by combining or substituting signs.</p><p>Neo nudged him with her elbow as they walked to class, Tai and Robyn a few steps ahead of them. She gave that little smirk of hers and signed, <em>“Didn’t tell him yesterday?”</em></p><p><em>Here it comes,</em> Qrow sighed internally.</p><p><em>“Maybe you’re tongue Tai-d?”</em> she finished, and winked before bursting into hissy, raspy giggles.</p><p>Qrow was not going to laugh at that one, she’d have to do better. He knew she could.</p><p><em>“Neo-t your best joke,”</em> he signed back.</p><p>She looked a little startled, before she broke out into a wider, warmer grin.</p><p><em>“Your first pun!”</em> she signed gleefully. <em>“I’m proud!”</em></p><p><em>“You are a terrible influence,”</em> Qrow replied.</p><p>Neo pouted, turned her nose up, and slightly quickened her pace, her parasol up and daintily posed over her shoulder even though it was mid-autumn and they were indoors.</p><p>After a moment, she fell back into step and glanced ahead to make sure Tai and Robyn were engrossed in their conversation, their hands too fast for Qrow to keep up with yet. Then, Neo gave Qrow a pointed look that was more than a little sympathetic.</p><p><em>“Seriously,”</em> she signed with a smile, <em>“ask him out. He’ll say yes. He likes you.”</em></p><p>Neo was probably right – whenever she was serious about something, she did really mean what she said. So, rationally, some part of Qrow knew that he should listen to her. But it was a small part, and the bulk of him was crotchety and deflective and easily frustrated.</p><p>He didn’t sign because it was a complicated statement and it was far easier to express visually, so he gave her an equally pointed look and then turned his gaze to Robyn, where she walked ahead of them, before returning his attention to Neo.</p><p>Neo looked him in the eyes for the first time in that conversation, then blinked and her iris colours swapped, her eyes narrowing into a glare, now mismatched with the sides of her dyed hair. (He thought it was dyed, anyway, maybe it was just a use of her semblance…)</p><p>With a look like that, he knew she was going to wallop him next time they sparred; it had been a very low blow and Qrow immediately felt more guilty than usual.</p><p>Light-hearted teasing was just light-hearted teasing, and Neo had never crossed a line to cause actual hurt, or said anything he wasn’t fine with. She didn’t overstep a boundary, but he’d just twisted a knife because he could, because seven years isn’t enough to fix his head despite what Raven sees in him.</p><p><em>“Tai is single and interested in you,”</em> Neo signed, her movements snappy with irritation and Qrow struggled to keep up with the complexity of the sentences, but she kept the movements deliberate so he could understand. <em>“Robyn is dating three girls halfway around the world, one of whom is new to the relationship. Robyn is complicated and I won’t ruin her existing relationships. Tai is not the same.”</em></p><p>He couldn’t let himself hear it. So he did what he usually did at times like this. Walk away.</p><p>Qrow swallowed, shoved his hands into his pockets and slouched, but Neo tapped him on the elbow to try and get him to look back to her. She wasn’t finished talking, there was something else she wanted to communicate, but he felt that surge of old anger.</p><p>He shrugged her touch off his arm and kept his eyes ahead as they approached the door to Alistair’s lecture theatre.</p><p>Tai and Robyn went through the door, but Neo stepped in between Qrow and the door to block him. She stood firmly in his path, her hands overlapped on the crook handle of her closed parasol as she rested it in front of her, the tip touching the floor; Ozpin and their cane never looked so authoritative, even when they stood in a similar way.</p><p>Qrow was over a foot taller than her, but it didn’t feel like it.</p><p>He opened his mouth to say something, but when he looked at her face, he realised that she didn’t look so angry anymore. The anger was there, in the tautness of her hands and the angle of her chin, but it didn’t dominate her expression; more than anything, she was hurt.</p><p>His words died on his tongue. A part of him wanted to step around her and go into the room, but he was trying to be better about things like this. Some days it seemed like trying was all he could ever do when it came to life, but trying wasn’t quite enough.</p><p>He <em>needed</em> to do better. Not just because he should, not just because Raven was too, but because his friends (and wasn’t that a weird pair of words to put together?) deserved it.</p><p>Qrow took one step back from her, drew his hands out of his pockets, met her eyes and slowly and deliberately signed, <em>“I’m sorry. I won’t do that again.”</em></p><p>There was a lot more that could be said, but it was complicated, and signing was still hard, and to say it with his voice would undermine it. What he’d said had been bad enough, but then he’d walked away from her communication, away from her first language. And so, he settled for those few signs, and hoped that the sentiment came across with how he expressed them.</p><p>It did.</p><p>Neo’s posture softened, and she gave a small nod, tucking her parasol under her arm so that she could use her hands. He knew he wasn’t fully forgiven, that would take longer, but she wouldn’t hold it against him.</p><p><em>“Tai thinks you’re not into him,”</em> signed Neo. <em>“Ask. Him. Out. He will say ‘yes’. You don’t need to be scared of that.”</em></p><p>Qrow had used to think he was good at hiding the way his semblance made him second guess and dread everything, but Neo saw right through him somehow in a way that once only Raven had. Maybe it was because she relied so much on body language that he’d never had to think about before.</p><p>Neo brought him back into focus with a small pat on his shoulder, and gestured with the tilt of her head towards the room. He followed her in, and she sat him down between Tai and herself, her long boots swinging several inches off the ground as she perched on the bench.</p><p>It took Qrow another three days to work up the nerve, but Neo had stopped teasing him about it.</p><p>He missed the teasing, but she made up for lost time when he told her the good news; Tai and him were going to go out dancing. She savoured the gloating over how she’d been right, and he couldn’t really blame her. He bought her an extra tub of ice cream as thanks for her help.</p><p>And he didn’t call her out for the lonely, lost look in her eyes whenever she watched Robyn from afar.</p>
<hr/><p>“So we’ve finally got a name for Raven’s sword,” Summer said, “which concludes point one of our team agenda today.”</p><p>“You made an agenda?” Raven asked. She looked over to Glynda. “She made an agenda?” Raven repeated.</p><p>“<em>I</em> made an agenda,” Glynda replied smoothly, “but I agreed with Summer that this would be fun.”</p><p>“On to point two!” Summer continued as if she hadn’t been interrupted, “Kali, how do we refer to your semblance? We don’t know what it’s called.”</p><p>Kali shrugged. “I never got around to naming it,” she replied, “I’m not good at naming things.”</p><p>Glynda smiled wryly. “I’m not sure you’d want us to help name it. I just called mine Telekinesis, which is about as bland as you can get. It’s not even fully accurate; my semblance is a bit more complex than just that alone.”</p><p>“And unless you want your semblance to be called Screamin’ Green,” Raven sniped, “I don’t think Summer should name it.”</p><p>Summer rolled her eyes. “At least I was suggesting team names,” she grumbled, “and I wouldn’t suggest that for your semblance Kali, it wouldn’t fit.”</p><p>“But Screamin’ Green would have fit the team?” asked Raven, one eyebrow raised.</p><p>“Q-quiet Miss Kindred Link,” she sputtered, “I still think Glynda’s suggestion was a better name for your semblance.”</p><p>Raven shrugged. “‘Gateway’ is too impersonal. It doesn’t reflect how much I have to care for someone to be able to link to them.”</p><p>“Agreed,” Kali said, “but we’re getting off track.”</p><p>“Yes!” Summer agreed suddenly, before lapsing into thought.</p><p>“Smoke and Mirrors?” Glynda suggested. “Because of your afterimages.”</p><p>Kali’s ears twitched excitedly, and she gave a little smile. “That could work,” she murmured thoughtfully. “Any other ideas?”</p><p>“Has Tai named his?” Raven asked.</p><p>Kali’s smile grew. “Aftershock,” she replied softly, “he named it within a day of discovering it, when he accidentally shook down the garden shed.”</p><p>Glynda sniffed, her fingertips drumming on her knee. “Somehow that doesn’t surprise me,” she sighed.</p><p>“You said your semblance is like your mothers’ semblances?” Raven said, Summer still lost in thought.</p><p>“I’ve got two mums,” replied Kali, “Blake and Yang. My semblance is like a mixture of parts of each of theirs, Shadow and Burn.”</p><p>Raven huffed quietly, her hands folded over her knees, her right thumb tapping the back of her left hand. She often did that when she was thinking, and didn’t seem to notice the habit. Summer thought it was adorable. And now Summer was getting distracted again.</p><p>Summer suddenly whipped her head towards Kali. “What was the second one?” she blurted.</p><p>“Burn.”</p><p>“And your semblance makes you faster by draining your aura to fuel it, right?” Summer checked.</p><p>Kali nodded.</p><p>“Afterburner?” Summer asked.</p><p>Kali sucked in a breath, beaming.</p><p>“Your suggestion is a pun?” Raven stared.</p><p>“It is,” Kali agreed, pulling Summer into a hug, “and I love it.”</p><p>Summer contained her squealing because she knew Kali’s hearing was sensitive. She settled for drumming the pads of her fingers on Kali’s shoulders as they hugged, humming contentedly.</p><p>“But..” Kali said as she shifted Summer into her lap and began to run her fingers through Summer’s hair, “we should still call <em>something</em> Smoke and Mirrors.”</p><p>Raven snorted; they’d discussed this before. “Do we really have to name team strategies too?” she asked tiredly.</p><p>“We’re calling them ‘combo attacks’,” corrected Summer gleefully from Kali’s embrace. “And yes, yes we do!”</p><p>Raven looked desperately over at Glynda. Glynda shrugged and switched to her ‘team leader’ voice. “If the name works as a signal,” she said precisely, “then what difference would there be between that and ‘Plan B’.”</p><p>“The ‘B’ could stand for ‘Branwen’…” Summer mused. Kali giggled and pushed Summer away playfully. Raven rolled her eyes, but couldn’t hide the quirk of her lips.</p><p>“So what’s Smoke and Mirrors going to be?” Glynda asked.</p><p>“Us,” Kali said, gesturing between her and Raven. Raven looked at her quizzically. “It’s like Glynda’s plan for us,” Kali clarified.</p><p>“You’re both fast and fight up close,” Glynda thought aloud, building on a brief idea she’d suggested a few days’ prior, “so if you fought someone using both of your semblances, they would end up surrounded and attacked from every direction.”</p><p>“I can’t link to any of you yet,” Raven replied tightly. “I know that’s still not ready. I’m sorry.”</p><p>“You don’t need to,” Summer pointed out, “and you don’t need to apologise for that. You can put them centred anywhere within five metres of your target, and you can target yourself. So, you’d make them appear targeted on yourself, and nothing would prevent Kali from moving through them too. It’s just like when you pulled me out of the way of that tree on the first day.”</p><p>Glynda winced. “I’m still so sorry about the tree, by the way,” she said, “I didn’t know you were there.”</p><p>Summer reached out and patted Glynda’s shoulder affectionately. “We were fine,” she replied brightly. “Only <em>almost</em> squished.”</p><p>Raven huffed. “I still think naming things isn’t essential,” she grumbled. “I’d feel self-conscious calling them out in a fight.”</p><p>“Would you rather we didn’t name it?” Kali checked.</p><p>Raven faltered and thought for a moment. She looked away shyly. “I can put up with it,” she mumbled quietly.</p><p>Summer contained a squeak.</p><p>“That’s one, then,” Glynda said. “Does anyone have suggestions for others?”</p><p>Summer leaned back over towards Kali, looping an arm around her shoulders and resting her cheek on Kali’s shoulder. “Snowdrop,” she said. “Cause Schnee means ‘snow’ and Belladonna is a plant, and Snowdrops are flowers.”</p><p>Kali looked at her. “You’ve been thinking about this, haven’t you?” she replied with a small smile.</p><p>“Yup,” Summer replied, releasing Kali so she could point at Raven, then at herself. “Rosebirds,” she insisted.</p><p>Raven shuffled where she was sitting, her cheeks turning a little red.</p><p>“As in,” Kali asked, “a pun on ‘Rosebud’?”</p><p>“Are all the names you’re suggesting going to be flower puns?” Glynda teased.</p><p>“Some of them!” Summer replied decisively.</p><p>“OK,” Raven said. When her voice was soft like that, Summer’s heart spun. “That one isn’t so bad.”</p><p>Finally, Summer turned to Glynda, trying not to get distracted by Raven. “I couldn’t think of a flower one for you and me,” she admitted, “but given our semblances, I think that ‘Magic Touch’ fits us.”</p><p>Glynda nodded appreciatively. “I think it does,” she agreed with a smile.</p><p>Kali raised her hand. “I’ve got something for me and Glynda!” she exclaimed.</p><p>Glynda smiled a slightly crooked smirk. “Oh?” she asked softly, her voice dipping.</p><p>Kali’s ears shifted, her head angled slightly forward, her lilac irises flickering with tiny shards of crimson for a moment. Summer pretended she didn’t notice; lately those two had been getting pretty bold with each other.</p><p>“Ultraviolet,” Kali continued smoothly, “because my eyes and your aura are shades of violet. There are colours to my eyes and to your aura that only a Faunus with night-eyes can see, and ‘ultraviolet’ is literally ‘beyond violet’. It describes how both of us look to me.”</p><p>“I thought you said you weren’t good at naming things,” Glynda breathed, her hand rising to lightly cover her mouth.</p><p>“There’s more to it,” Kali said, her smile softening. “Lesbians traditionally give each other violet flowers as a statement of love. And on top of all that, purple is a colour of nobility; you’re a regal Atlesian, and I’m the daughter of Menagerie’s Chief.”</p><p>Summer’s jaw dropped. “You’re a Princess?” she wheezed.</p><p>Kali laughed. “I’m not a Princess” she replied, “why does everyone always say that? It’s an elected position. You didn’t know Blake was Chief?”</p><p>Summer shook her head blankly. “Ruby and Weiss didn’t mention it,” she replied.</p><p>Kali shrugged. “It’s not that important outside of Menagerie,” she said with unusual shyness.</p><p>Meanwhile, Glynda was giving Kali a look that Summer could only describe as enraptured. “‘Ultraviolet’ is perfect,” she replied breathlessly.</p><p>Raven took a deep breath, then looked at Glynda. “I’ve got an idea for us,” Raven said nervously. Kali and Summer glanced at each other excitedly.</p><p>Raven swallowed. “Familiar,” she said.</p><p>Glynda smiled. “Because I’m called ‘-witch’ and you’re called ‘Raven’?”</p><p>Raven’s fingers picked at the carpet. “Partly. I thought you’d all like that. But it’s also a reflection of how my semblance works. I connect to people or places using my Aura, and our aura is our soul. It’s very rare for me to connect that strongly.”</p><p>Raven’s lips pressed together thinly for a moment before she continued. “I wasn’t fair to you on our first day,” she said quietly. “I withheld things that you needed to know as our leader. But I trust you, and with every week that passes I trust you more.”
</p><p>She looked up at Glynda, her red eyes soft. “You’re earning that trust. I want the name we use to reflect that. And if I can ever create a Link to you, a name like that would really mean something to me.”</p><p>Raven shrugged, the movement failing to come off as casual. “If that makes sense,” she finished shakily.</p><p>Glynda’s smile had turned gentle. “Thank you,” she replied.</p><p>“Raven,” Summer sniffled, Kali already wiping her eyes.</p><p>“Don’t set me off too,” Raven said, laughing desperately.</p><p>Summer held out her arms in Raven’s direction. Raven sighed and nodded, holding out her arms too. Summer scooted across the floor between them and hugged her partner tightly. Raven let out a slow breath.</p><p>“Talking about feelings is hard,” Raven whispered. Summer ran a hand through Raven’s hair.</p><p>“But does it help?” she asked back.</p><p>Raven’s breathing grew steadier.</p><p>“Yes,” she replied.</p><p>“If you like,” Kali said gently, “I have a name suggestion for a strategy that might make you laugh.”</p><p>Raven smiled as Summer shuffled around in the hug to lean back against her partner where they sat. The taller woman’s chin came to rest on the top of Summer’s head, her strong arms wrapped around Summer’s tummy as she held her. Both of them looked at Kali together.</p><p>“Yeah?” Raven asked.</p><p>Kali gestured to Summer, then to Raven, then to herself, her shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter.</p><p>“Skobeloff!” Kali giggled.</p><p>“YES! We’re bringing it back!” Summer yelled, as Raven gave an exasperated groan and Glynda started to laugh.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Holding On To Smoke</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>It's timelapse/training-montage time! I think the first-term at Beacon should be mostly chill and foundational material, and didn't want to linger on classes and incremental changes since this is primarily a story of emotional growth and relationships, so this felt like a logical moment to focus on key shifts leading up to the end of Summer's first term!</p><p>Enjoy some soft-Glynda, soft-Raven, team cuddles and adorable sweetness. They all deserve all the affection. These four are so fucking gay and full of love and gentleness and I adore them. </p><p>Also I am not sorry for the ending of this chapter and neither is Maria mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <hr/><p>In the remaining weeks of the first term, Raven caught up <em>fast.</em></p><p>She learned quickly, and already had well-honed instincts and a great deal of experience. Because they hadn’t been to a Primary Combat Academy, she and Qrow had gaps in their formal training. But with each week that passed, each spar, each class, the gap in unarmed skill narrowed.</p><p>All of them were improving, and she and Qrow in particular were taking more and more unarmed spars off the others.</p><p>With weapons however, Raven and Qrow were completely different fighters. Their precision, physical speed and technique were among the best in the group when armed, Summer thought, especially factoring in their semblances.</p><p>Raven’s portals combined with her blades and speed were an overwhelming pressure, and Qrow’s reach, versatility, and bird-transformation semblance were formidable. The fact that he took his sword-scythe, Harbinger, with him when he transformed allowed him mobility on the battlefield that only Raven could outmatch, but hers drained her aura faster. Add that to how often things around him went awry, and Summer found him harder to win against than Raven. Rosethorn had jammed twice in her life before she’d met Qrow, but when she sparred against him it jammed at least once every fight.</p><p>On any given day, a fight between them could go either way, and Summer regretted poking fun at Qrow’s weapon on the first day at Beacon; it did in fact outrange Rosethorn, getting hit with it <em>hurt,</em> and the heavy ‘whoosh’ of a narrow miss in scythe form made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. The weapon was a death-trap.</p><p>Whether sparring armed or unarmed, with semblances or without, alone or in pairs or teams, the scoreboard evened out more and more with every session. Even in the unarmed spars, Tai, Kali and Neo were taking losses now, though Neo still reigned over the group by a wide margin.</p><p>And every session, one of those three would sit down with Summer one-to-one to practise intensively with her semblance until she was exhausted.</p><p>Abandoning the idea of overlapping with other people had changed her strategy completely. It meant unlearning years of muscle memory and patterns of thinking. That didn’t come easily, but Summer was excited and made gradual progress in the six weeks after sparring with Gretchen.</p><p>She started to keep a notebook for Tai, Kali and Neo to write in during each session, cataloguing improvements, weaknesses, or new ideas to review and come back to later.</p><p>Neo was particularly direct about her failures and how to improve. Since Summer’s signing was still limited and the topic was so complex, she and Neo mostly communicated via typing on scrolls during the spars. In their first session together after Summer’s decision, Neo had pointed out something that Summer hadn’t considered.</p><p><em>You lost to Tai,</em> Neo had written, <em>because you were too scared of him learning to fight against your semblance. You completely gave up control of the fight. You should use your semblance as much as possible; your opponent knowing how it works does not make it irrelevant.</em></p><p>Neo had also pointed out something else that Summer hadn’t realised. After Summer had told her about how she could Overlap with herself to cushion impacts, Neo asked why she didn’t do that for every block, as well as using all blocks to deflect and counterattack, like when she had punched Tai’s chin from under his guard. Summer hadn’t thought of that before, and it was a massive amount to mentally process when in a fight. By the last week of term, she still fumbled it completely at least a third of the times she tried.</p><p>Tai and Kali suggested new ideas too. Tai had focussed more on Summer’s usage of short overlaps with the ground to accelerate, which he felt she was underusing. If she could turn that into something that required less conscious control, it would build upon her footwork and speed. Kali, meanwhile, had zeroed in on what she thought was perhaps Summer’s biggest limitation; her physical strength.</p><p>Summer had always avoided strength training. Before transitioning, the thought of it had made her dysphoric. Then once she’d come out and started puberty blockers, she was afraid of losing her newfound relief about her own appearance. By now, after a couple of years on oestrogen, avoiding strength training had become a habit.</p><p>Summer’s semblance was most useful when up close, but it did nothing for her physical strength. This presented a major problem, in Kali’s opinion, because her extended flexibility could be overcome by force alone. So, she ended up joining in with Raven and Tai’s workout regimen, since Kali had no need to train to build muscle. She was nervous about how her body might change, and Tai understood Summer’s hesitance and how dysphoria felt. Between the two of them, Tai and Raven helped her to find the balance she needed. Progress was slow, but it was a start.</p><p>She would never reach the strength of someone with an enhancement-semblance, but she didn’t have to, she just had to be physically stronger and fitter than she already was.</p><p>The weeks came and went in a blur of classes, spars, the occasional detention (invariably either her fault or Kali’s) and scroll calls to catch up with her parents. Her eighteenth birthday passed with a small party in their dorm room, for which Tai and Kali had baked her a cake and her parents sent flowers. She made it through the midterm exams just fine, with some thanks to her teammates, and Weiss’s advice and prompting.</p><p>She could easily have ended up overworking, but Glynda kept a careful eye on her. Sometimes her teammates had to practically drag Summer away from training, as it was so easy for her to get hyperfocussed and lose track of time.</p><p>Until, finally, they were in week eleven and the end of the first term was in sight, which meant an end-of-term test for each class.</p><p>Glynda was dreading Professor Alistair’s exam; Summer was dreading Calavera’s. The nervousness was making it hard for either of them to sleep, especially since the tests were on the same day. Alistair’s written exam was in the morning, Calavera’s combat exam was in the arena in the afternoon. But Glynda’s nerves were far worse than Summer’s.</p><p>On the evening before the exams, Summer hadn’t seen her leader so tense before. Glynda was sitting up in her bed, trying to read over her notes one last time by the light of her scroll. The fingernail of her right index finger was absently picking at her thumbnail of that hand, the once-immaculate polish chipping at the edge.</p><p>Summer rolled off her bed and lightly crossed the room, careful not to wake Raven or Kali. She sat down on the edge of Glynda’s bed, and gently reached for her right hand.</p><p>Glynda glanced up from her notes, gave her a tight smile, but accepted Summer’s hand. Summer briefly squeezed.</p><p>“You need to rest,” Summer prompted softly.</p><p>“I should,” Glynda sighed, “but I just keeping thinking, ‘what if I forget something?’ Then I lie awake, so I read them all again.”</p><p>Summer slowly reached out with her other hand. Glynda passed her the notes and took off her glasses, rubbing her eyes.</p><p><em>Glynda Goodwitch</em> had dark bags under her eyes.</p><p>If you’d asked Summer a few weeks beforehand which of her teammates she expected to struggle with exam stress, Glynda would have been bottom of the list. Although, with her perfectionism, it should not have been a surprise.</p><p>Summer set down the notes on Glynda’s bedside table.</p><p>“Can I help?” she asked, keeping her voice quiet so as to not disturb their teammates.</p><p>Glynda gave a small smile. “You already are,” she said, squeezing Summer’s hand back.</p><p>Summer beckoned Glynda to the edge of the bed and got her to sit. She shuffled to kneel behind Glynda and set about untangling her hair. Glynda hadn’t redone her hair in two days, she simply hadn’t allowed herself the time, and Summer knew how much Glynda’s routines and haircare helped her to relax. When the stress had fully hit, they’d been the first things to go.</p><p>Glynda leaned back onto her hands where she sat, as Summer patiently undid Glynda’s crown braid. Glynda winced or twitched at the small catches and knots, but Summer worked gently, the pattern of the movement helping herself to de-stress too. She gently ran out the remaining knots until Glynda’s hair was free, loose, and hanging around her shoulders.</p><p>Summer reached up and plucked Glynda’s hairbrush off the shelf above the bed, and set to brushing through her pale blonde waves, humming quietly throughout.</p><p>She could see the tension leaving Glynda’s shoulders, her team leader’s stiffly upright back beginning to loosen.</p><p>Summer shuffled back against Glynda’s pillows and gently tapped Glynda on the shoulders, encouraging her to turn around and lie against Summer, Glynda’s cheek on Summer’s collarbone. Summer wrapped her arms around her, and dropped the hairbrush off to one side.</p><p>“Normally,” Glynda yawned, “I’m the one who does the holding.”</p><p>Summer smiled, running a hand across the back of Glynda’s shoulders. There was still some tension there, but her neck had been visibly tight before and was now softer to the touch.</p><p>“We’ll hold you anytime you like,” Summer said, glancing over at the other beds. Raven was still asleep, but Kali was awake and watching them with that soft smile of hers.</p><p>“We will indeed,” Kali agreed quietly.</p><p>Glynda blinked, suddenly more awake. “I thought you were asleep,” she replied, slightly shifting to hold onto Summer more closely.</p><p>Kali shifted. “I was,” she said, “but the two of you woke me, and I didn’t want to disturb you.”</p><p>Glynda hesitated.</p><p>Kali sat up a little, one ear tilting. “Would you like me to join you?” she asked.</p><p>“Yes,” Glynda said, her voice small.</p><p>Kali slipped off her bed, landed near-silently on her foot; she didn’t sleep with her prosthetic leg attached, instead leaving it plugged in to charge near their bunk bed. She hopped carefully and quietly across the room as Summer released Glynda, and crawled onto the bed under the duvet, and Glynda slipped under the sheets too and curled up against Kali’s right side. Summer got up off the bed to leave them in peace, but Kali gently caught Summer’s hand.</p><p>“Nah,” Kali said quietly, “you’re not getting left out.”</p><p>Glynda’s right hand shifted a little and Summer felt a gentle tug from Glynda’s semblance on her free hand.</p><p>She had assumed they would have wanted her to go.</p><p>Lately the three of them had been more open with each other, more affectionate. Glynda had done each of their make-up a few times, and Summer was pretty sure that what each of those sessions did to her heart rate probably took at least a few days off her lifespan. But Glynda and Kali in particular had become much more intimate with each other in recent weeks, frequently spending the night in each other’s beds to sleep side-by-side.</p><p>Summer had been too shy to ask for the same.</p><p>She let the two of them gently guide her under the covers with them, and tucked herself in next to Kali. Glynda and Summer lay on either side of Kali, a head on each of her shoulders, their bodies held close by one arm each.</p><p>“You’re stressed too, Summer,” Kali said.</p><p>Summer sighed into Kali’s t-shirt.</p><p>“I think I’m a lot better now,” she admitted.</p><p>Glynda reached over and stroked Summer’s cheek with her right hand.</p><p>“I’m glad,” Glynda said, “and, thank you.”</p><p>Summer felt a lump in her throat and a warmth in her cheeks. She meant to say “No problem,” but it came out as an incoherent mumble.</p><p>Kali hummed, a soft sound that Summer felt through her cheekbone.</p><p>“Sleep,” Kali said gently, “both of you. Tomorrow will be fine.”</p><p>Summer swallowed and tucked an arm over Kali to rest her hand on Glynda’s elbow, the smooth fabric of Glynda’s long-sleeved pyjamas soft beneath her fingertips.</p><p>“What if I overlap with you by mistake in the morning?” she asked, tensely.</p><p>Glynda re-opened one eye and looked at her for a moment.</p><p>“I wake up before you,” Glynda replied. “If you want, I can shift you so we’re not touching when you wake up. I can’t promise if it happens in your sleep though.”</p><p>Summer’s face fell.</p><p>“When you start to fall asleep, we could stop holding you and move so that we’re not touching,” Kali suggested, “then you could only overlap with the bed in your sleep.”</p><p>Summer turned her head to bury her face in Kali’s shoulder. She wasn’t going to cry, she decided. She wasn’t.</p><p>“Yeah,” she answered with shaky relief. “That works.”</p><p>She felt brief, gentle contact with her top of her head, and opened her eyes to see Kali moving across to place a soft kiss on the crown of Glynda’s head, Glynda’s shoulder-length hair curling around under her jaw to fan onto Kali’s chest. Summer’s mind went blank.</p><p>
  <em>Oh.</em>
</p><p>“Goodnight,” Kali said, lilac eyes closing, that perfect, soft smile at the corner of her lips.</p><p>Summer wondered what she’d done to deserve her teammates. How could one girl be so lucky?</p>
<hr/><p>The morning exam went well. Glynda’s nerves seemed to have settled by the time it actually started, and when they left the room afterwards, she was visibly relieved.</p><p>Summer leapt into her arms in an excited hug. Glynda was the tallest on the team, and Raven wasn’t much shorter. Kali was next, but still well above average height (even when not counting her ears) and Summer was by far the smallest member of the team. The top of her head didn’t even reach Glynda’s collarbones if they stood side-by-side.</p><p>Summer wasn’t even short; she was average height and adamant about it! Glynda was just taller than almost anyone at Beacon when in her heels, narrowly taller than Tai. Summer loved being the smallest of her team, it meant that her feet left the ground if she did a hug like this. Glynda supported her and twirled, smiling, and set Summer back onto her feet.</p><p>“It went well?” Summer asked, already knowing, but still wanting to ask.</p><p>“I think so,” Glynda replied. “Thank you for last night. It really helped me relax.”</p><p>Tai was passing them by at that exact moment, and his head snapped towards them, startled, eyes wide. Next to him, Qrow started to laugh. Glynda looked over at Qrow out of the corner of her eye. The laugh stopped suddenly. Qrow cleared his throat and looked the other way.</p><p>“I-it wasn’t like it sounds,” Summer blurted, “we just slept together.”</p><p>Glynda sighed, and Tai started laughing. Qrow hadn’t looked back yet but his shoulders were shaking. Further ahead in the corridor, Neo glanced back at them and waggled her eyebrows. Summer’s brain caught up to her mouth and she turned red.</p><p>“What’s this about sleeping together?” Kali asked innocently as she caught up to them. Raven was close behind her, suddenly startling at Kali’s words.</p><p>Summer buried her face in her own hands, groaning.</p><p>Kali threw an arm around Summer’s shoulders. “But seriously, Summer and Glynda were stressed and couldn’t sleep,” Kali said. “We just looked after each other, that’s all.” </p><p>Glynda nodded, stretching her stiff shoulder after so long hunched over a desk.</p><p>Kali gave Summer’s shoulder an affectionate squeeze before letting go. “Shall we get lunch together?” she asked.</p><p>Summer’s face crept out of her hands. She had slightly overlapped the surfaces in her embarrassment, so she brushed the few petals off her cheeks. “Yeah, let’s,” she replied.</p><p>They kept lunch light, having a few hours until their timeslot for the exam. Teams had been allocated fifteen-minute timeslots spaced thirty minutes apart in the combat arena, to allow time to clean up and get the arena back in order before the next test. GSBR’s slot was the third, and teams were not allowed to discuss the test with others. No-one knew what the test entailed, but each team was assigned a different time, so they knew they were not fighting each other.</p><p>Summer reckoned it was going to be a set task or objective using the training drones – cheaper, more easily repaired versions of Atlas’s robotic infantry. Something repeatable, with controlled conditions, to make it a reliable test.</p><p>Except, it was Professor Calavera’s class and she was… <em>odd.</em> ‘Gleeful’ was one word Summer had heard a second-year use to describe Calavera’s attitude in exams. ‘Devious’ was another, along with ‘terrifying’, which was why Summer had been so on edge. She’d worked so hard on her semblance and fighting this term and really wanted to show her progress.</p><p>She spent the next couple of hours in her dorm room with her team. Raven took a nap, Kali re-did Glynda’s bun, and Summer did a complete teardown and reassembly of Rosethorn. She’d done that twice already this week, but it soothed her.</p><p>Painstakingly, she disassembled the shell, the entire firing mechanism, the Dustpowder injection system, and the grappling mechanism for the bayonet. She cleaned every part even though they were already clean. She checked that the Dustpowder chambers were full even though she already knew that they were. She fully extended and rewound the wire of the grappling-bayonet by hand and oiled the hook that snapped out when it was launched. She reassembled the whole weapon, working slowly and patiently the entire time. And then, when she was finally finished, she looked at Glynda’s clock on the windowsill.</p><p>Still another hour.</p><p>She huffed and flopped back onto the floor, drumming her hands on her thighs. She glanced over at Glynda and Kali, froze, and stared.</p><p>Glynda was sitting upright on the edge of her bed. Kali was lying on her side, curled, her head resting on Glynda’s lap as Glynda’s hand ran through her hair and stroked her cat ears. Kali’s eyes were closed and her face was blissful, as Glynda looked down at her softly, mesmerised.</p><p>Summer just kept staring, her breath caught.</p><p>She heard Raven stir, off to her left, and glanced over to see her partner sitting up on her bed, tilting her head to loosen her stiff neck, her black wavy hair tangling, cascading down her back. Raven brushed wayward locks out of her face as her eyes opened. She saw Glynda and Kali, Glynda having looked up at Raven, her hand stilling for a moment in Kali’s hair.</p><p>Raven looked between the two, visibly surprised, then her lips shifted into a smile that dimpled her cheeks. Glynda smiled back, her hands beginning to move again. Summer watched all three of them, feeling like her heart was melting as Kali began to snore quietly.</p><p>Raven glanced over at Summer and bit her lip, visibly in thought. Then she shifted, mirrored Glynda’s position, and beckoned Summer. Summer lost her breath for the second time.</p><p>
  <em>Raven wants to cuddle me,</em> she thought dimly, <em>Raven wants to stroke my hair.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em></em>
  </em>
</p><p>Affection had begun to appear in little moments here and there: Raven initiating hugs actively, sitting more closely with the others when they all relaxed together, curling up to Summer more closely in the nights that she couldn’t sleep and the two of them went to the Quiet Room. Raven had watched the others become more cuddly with each other, but hadn’t asked to be physically involved in that to such a extent before.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>Summer shuffled quickly across the floor, hopping up onto Raven’s bed. She probably could have walked, but standing up would have taken more time, time she could be spending with Raven. She flopped down, resting her cheek on Raven’s thighs just like Kali was resting on Glynda’s, facing towards Raven’s knees.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>Raven was a little hesitant at first, her touch light and nervous, but as Summer began to relax and bliss out, Raven grew more confident. Raven’s hands were strong, criss-crossed with scars just like the rest of her, but she stroked and scratched Summer’s head so gently. Summer’s eyes closed contentedly, the ends of Raven’s long hair brushing over Summer’s shoulder as she moved.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>Summer let out a slow breath.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>“We should do team cuddles more,” Summer said quietly. “This is nice.”</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>Raven hummed.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>“It is,” Glynda replied. “I’ve got an alarm set before the exam. We can just relax for a while.”</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>Summer heard movement from Glynda’s direction, then a sudden gasp. Her eyes flicked open, head tilting up to see what was happening, Raven’s hand stilling in her hair.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>Kali was awake, a hand to her mouth, eyes bright, staring at them.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>“Hey,” Summer said.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>Kali scrambled up off Glynda’s bed and dashed across the room. Quickly, she knelt on the other side of Raven, opposite Summer. Raven was surprised, but the surprise turned to a little smile, and she gave Kali a nod.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>Summer looked between them, and then shifted so she was lying with her face pointing upwards and her head positioned closer to Raven’s hips. She patted the now-free space towards Raven’s knees.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>Raven eyes were the softest Summer had ever seen them be as Kali lay down from the other side, her head coming to rest next to Summer’s and mirroring her position. Raven’s left hand was still in Summer’s hair, and her right moved to stroke the top of Kali’s head. Kali sighed contentedly, and Summer felt the fluffy tips of Kali’s ears tickle the side of her neck as they flicked in response to Raven’s touch.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>“I’ve been spurned,” Glynda laughed quietly. Summer heard Glynda shift, and felt the bed sink a little where Glynda moved to sit close to Raven, her legs folded beneath her, an arm around Raven’s shoulders.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>“But I think we can do team cuddles whenever Raven wants,” Glynda continued warmly.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>Raven’s small smile widened. Her fingertips scratched behind one of Kali’s cat ears, and Kali’s head tilted into it. A soft, low purr escaped from Kali, and Summer froze. Raven took a sharp breath that turned to a relaxed sigh as she scratched that spot a little more firmly. Kali moved seemingly on instinct, shifting to rub her cheek against Summer’s head, the purr intensifying.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>Summer shifted without thinking and kissed Kali’s temple, her hands sneaking up to join Raven’s right hand on Kali’s head, stroking through the soft black curls of her short haircut and scratching behind Kali’s other cat ear.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>The purring turned to a trill for a moment, Kali in total bliss. Summer was overcome with the desire to kiss her, but now wasn’t the time. She could wait another few days before she worked up the nerve to ask.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>Summer looked up at Raven, who looked content, but somehow slightly sad.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>“I won’t want to hold you as often as you three hold each other,” Raven said quietly, “but this is nice.” Her smile dimmed a little further. “I could get used to this,” she murmured.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>Summer wasn’t sure what Raven was thinking about, but she could tell when her partner started to get stuck in her own head. She reached up with one hand and gently brushed a thick wave of Raven’s hair back behind her ear, settling into stroking Raven’s cheek.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>“We can,” Summer replied, “if you want.”</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>Raven started to say something in reply, but swallowed.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>“I think,” Raven said finally, “I’m ready to try a Link.”</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>The room held its breath.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>“It might not work,” Raven whispered, “but can I try?”</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>Summer gave a nervous nod, and she felt Kali give a firmer nod beside her. Glynda did the same, shifting closer to Raven.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>Raven closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>Her aura flared, red, wispy, and Summer tasted a familiar bitter, acidic taste. This time, it was not so brief or surprising, and she noticed a tingling feeling, like static. After a few moments, Raven’s eyes opened, the visible aura faded back, the sensations disappeared, and Raven’s face fell.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>“I-I thought,” Raven said, her voice cracked. “I thought, maybe, but… it’s too soon. It didn’t work.”</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>Summer shifted, sitting up quickly to hug her. Glynda hugged Raven from the back, Kali moving to join in from next to Summer.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>She didn’t really know what to say, but she didn’t need to say anything. They soothed Raven together until it was time to go.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>“GSBR!” Professor Calavera called from her place overlooking the arena as they entered. “Please line up in the centre of the arena. Any order is fine.”</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>They did as asked, standing close. Raven put on her mask.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>Calavera grinned. “Little further apart,” she said, and Summer <em>did not</em> like how gleeful she sounded about it. She just knew at that moment that the exam would be super mean. The four of them moved a step further away from each other, leaving them still within each other’s reach.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>“Things are a bit different for your team,” their Professor said. “For most teams the conditions for victory are ring out, aura break, or yield.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>“But given your team leader’s semblance,” she continued, “Victory being achievable by ring out would trivialise the test. So for you, victory is only possible by aura break or yield.” Professor Calavera smiled enthusiastically and Summer’s heart sank.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>“I know you’ve been practising hard,” Calavera said, “so show me what you’re capable of! This is full-contact.”</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>Summer’s mouth went dry. “Professor?” she blurted.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>Calavera’s silver-grey eyes turned to Summer. “Yes?” she asked cheerfully.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>“What are we fighting?” Summer asked nervously.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>
  <em>Please don’t say you, please don’t say you, please don’t say–</em>
</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>“You’re not fighting <em>me</em> if that’s what you’re asking,” Calavera laughed.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>
  <em>Oh, Thank God.</em>
</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>And then Professor Calavera’s laughed turned into something Summer could only have described as a cackle.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>
  <em>Oh God...</em>
</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>“It’s a free-for-all,” she continued, “You’ll be graded on your individual performance, not whether you win.</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>“Your opponents are your own teammates. Begin!”</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>beta'd by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eternalmetalhead/pseuds/Eternalmetalhead">Eternalmetalhead</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>